First Punch
by TechnicolorNoize
Summary: Life aboard the Ark wasn't always as dire as it seemed. This story follows Leah Pentecost, an engineering student, in her life aboard the ark. [MontyxOC] [MurphyxOC] [Slow-burn]
1. Chapter 1

This was going to be a quick fluffly little 100 one-shot about our resident little techie, but somehow this has turned into more. Now readers, you know the deal. The 100 is not owned by me, nor are any of its characters. This is fan fiction for a reason boys and girls.

Themes: Romance, Ark-life

* * *

Leah Pentecost was the daughter of a Hydro mechanic and an Agro scientist, so needless to say when Sinclair approached her about entering the Engineering program her parents were ecstatic. Engineers were some of the most respected members of Ark, Leah knew she should also be jumping for joy but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was not meant to be an engineer. It was true she had her clever moments but she had always planned on being a mechanic like her father. Engineers designed, weighed outcomes, did math... none of that seemed like her cup of tea. She liked getting her hands dirty.

Leah walked into Sinclair s office, Monty Green sat in one of the two chairs that were on the opposite side of Sinclair s desk. It looked as though Sinclair had attempted to make his office a tad tidier for their meeting. Another older boy stood behind Sinclair, he gave her a once over probably trying to figure out how this tiny girl would ever survive the engineering program. "Miss Pentecost. Please, have a seat." Sinclair said with a huge smile. Leah knew why Monty and her were there, they had the top grades they always had. However in recent years Monty became more of a goof-off than an studious good boy. She shut the office door behind her before taking a seat next to Monty. She smiled at him as she sat down he smiled but quickly looked away. "Mr. Green, Ms. Pentecost congratulations and welcome to Engineering. Normally we accept the top five but this year we have only accepted two."

"So don't fuck up." The man behind Sinclair said simply. Leah now understood why he looked her over so intently. This year they were only accepting two students into their program.

"Kyle, please." Sinclair snapped at the man. "The gentleman behind me will be your mentor, Kyle Wick. You will be going to your normal classes as well as report to me three days a week after class for additional class. Then..."

"Two days a week you squirts will be with me. Practical application skills, Sinclair can teach you everything but if you can't apply it, you are worthless." Kyle interrupted. "So this is your chance to drop out if you don't think you can handle it. Don't waste our time." This man was a dick.

"Kyle, I have no doubt that either of these two will waste our time. They are both brilliant, and if you don't stop trying to scare them away I will get someone else to be their mentor. Kyle, will be here for any questions you all might have and he had promised me to actually be of assistance not just patronize you I promise." Sinclair seemed genuinely happy and excited for their joining of the program. "I say we get our official start tomorrow. Enjoy your last night of relaxing evenings for a while. Thank you Mr. Green, Ms. Pentecost, you are both now excused."

"Sir, before I leave can I ask a question." Monty's voice actually caught Leah off guard. "Why are you only accepting two applicants this year?"

"Your year's scores on the practical applications tests were some of the worst we've ever seen." Sinclair answered honestly. "Like Kyle said, if you can't apply the knowledge you are worthless. You two are the only two that actually meet the full qualification without lowering the bar, but as you know next year your year is retested and may be accepted into the program at a later date." Well, at least Sinclair was honest, Leah couldn't help the urge she felt to just stand up and walk out of the room and never come back. She didn't even want to be an engineer and to hear that she was one of only two the qualified to entered the program this year. "Did that answer your question Mr. Green?"

"Yes sir." Monty answered simply, it was a small detail but she noticed his hand was clenched tightly to his leg. Perhaps Monty felt the same way she did. An unnerving feeling about this program.

"Then you are both excused, I will see you here tomorrow." Sinclair said simply.

Leah and Monty both stood at the same time, Leah nodded politely to Sinclair and then to Kyle. Monty beat her to the door and opened it and walked out into the corridor, as she was closing the door she heard Kyle tell Sinclair that he didn't think they'd last a week. She looked up to speak to Monty but she saw Jasper Jordan was already standing there waiting for him further down the corridor. Instead of mentioning it she decided to let it go and followed Monty down the corridor.

Jasper Jordan was leaning against the wall and when the two of them got closer and pushed himself off the wall. "Leah, I didn't expect to see you here. I mean I knew you were smart but damn. Engineering? Congratulations." Jasper was smiling sincerely.

"Thanks. I'll see you both tomorrow then?" She asked kindly trying to feign a smile.

"Of course," Jasper was beaming. Monty however looked still on edge. Leah's eyes fell on Monty longer than intended because Jasper ended up shoving an elbow into his side, "right Monty?"

Monty seemed to almost wake up with the jolt he looked harshly at Jasper, a look that said he had no idea what that action had been for and as Jasper's eyes bounced from Monty to Leah and back Monty apparently understood his unspoken words. "Oh yeah. Sure." He said agreeing even though Leah was pretty sure he had no idea what he was agreeing too.

"Then I'll be leaving first, Hydro is a bit further walk than Agro." She said politely before walking past the boys.

"Pentecost. Pentecost is the other applicant? Seriously. Sounds like someone is a lucky bastard." Jasper said watching the girl walk away. Long legs, petite build but tall, dark hair that seemed to fall perfectly around her face to highlight her gorgeous blue eyes. "Please say you aren't still considering dropping out. I mean you get to have late long nights with the queen of Hydro." Jasper said still admiring the sight until she turned the corner.

Monty punched him in the shoulder. "Yeah, late long nights of algorithms. How sexy." Jasper grinned at him and Monty couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, lets get back. That meeting was stressful as fuck, Sinclair was smiling while telling us we are it and he doesn't have other options while the other dick basically said we were a waste of time." Monty said as he started down the hall, Jasper following right behind matching his pace at his side.

"I'm just saying I would waste a ton of time on Pentecost. Why aren't the girls on Agro that hot?" Jasper said still grinning. "I mean, their hot but they know they are. Pentecost is so fucking innocent about it. She doesn't even seem to notice when boys flirt with her. Atom was hitting on her in class for a good hour and she never seemed to notice she just kept getting annoyed that he couldn't keep up with her."

"Maybe she just doesn't care. Much to your surprise not everyone thinks about sex constantly like you do." Monty poked fun at his best friend.

"Then those people are wrong." Jasper said laughing.

Leah walked into her families compartment and saw John sitting on the couch. Her father must not have been home yet, since she still heard her mother in the kitchen making dinner. "I'm home!" She announced.

"Not that anyone cares." John said simply from the couch. He was playing with a simple ball throwing it up and catching it and repeating the action.

Leah's mother came into the main compartment and smiled at her daughter. "Your father will be back soon, then dinner, then I want to hear all about your meeting with Sinclair." She was beaming as she walked over and hugged her daughter kissing her gently on the head.

Leah looked past her mother to John laying on the couch who rolled his eyes and got up and walked into his room. John was a ward of her father, his father had been floated and his mother had passed away, since her father was friends with John's father he offered to take the boy. Converting her mothers office space into a third bedroom for him he was permitted to move in. He had lived with them for about a year and a half now. Leah smiled at her mother "I'm going to go change, for dinner." She said simply, escaping her mother's embrace.

She walked towards her room next to John's as her mother escaped back to the kitchen. When she opened the door she saw John laying on her bed, like it was his own, shoes and all. "When are you going to tell them you don't want to do it?" He asked as he tossed his ball up in the air and caught it once more.

She stormed over as he did it again and caught it before he could while in was in the air. "Who says I don't want to do it?" She asked coldly. She swatted at his feet. "Get your nasty shoes off my bed. Have you never heard of manners before?" She was aggravated, not at John but at her circumstances. He was right, she didn't want to be an engineer, but she also didn't want to tell her parents she didn't want to do it. "You are suppose to knock before entering a ladies bedroom." She said simply as he sat up and glared at her.

"You weren't in here yet, so it doesn't matter. Plus if you don't want me to come in block the panel in the closet." He said simply. The two rooms shared a wall between their closets with a loose panel that allowed for a quick and simple way to pass between the rooms, she often used it as a child to explore her mother's office. Now that John lived over there, they used it to move between the two rooms without being noticed by her parents.

Though he lived with them, she was sure her mother would prefer that her daughter never spoke to John. He was a bad boy, if she fell into his troubles she could end up in the Skybox, it still surprised them that John hadn't ended up their yet. "I might as well give it a shot... I mean how am I suppose to know if I don't like something until I try it." Leah said in almost defeat. She didn't believe her words and the look that John gave her said he didn't believe it either.

"Whatever you say Leah," he said simply before standing up and taking his ball back from her hand. She let it go without much trouble, he stood by her side, facing away from her. "But you know you should probably try enjoying life eventually." With that he walked towards her closet and walked into it closing the door behind him. Within moments she heard him throwing that damn ball against the wall that they rooms shared.

Leah wasn't sure if was the repetitive noise of the ball hitting the wall that was making her blood boil or if it was the fact that he was right. John was not allowed to be right, about anything in her opinion especially not anything directly concerning. She in frustration walked to her open closet and tore the door open and pushed a large box in front of the loose panel before slamming the door shut. He would have had to hear that because shortly after the ball stopped hitting the wall. She walked over to her drawers and pulled out a simple sweater. She walked over to her bed tossing the sweater on the bed before stripping her current shirt and tossing to to the side. She pulled on the sweater and sat on her bed, pulling her legs to her, hugging them. She buried her face into her knees unsure if she wanted to scream or cry. She didn't know what she wanted and it was going to drive her insane.

She heard her father come in and shook her negative feelings quickly and put that fake smile back on her across her lips as she walked back out into her families main compartment. She could figure out her life later, right now she had to convince herself and her parents that she was excited about more work than any fifteen year old should have to endure.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Thanks for the follows. I appreciate them, I really do. Sorry it took so long for an update.

* * *

Three days of classes, three days of Sinclair adding on hours of work afterwards for the internship, three days of hell. Leah sat at her desk with just the glow of her small desk light to work by. So far it seemed by all who witnessed the extra classes with Sinclair, Monty was miles ahead of Leah in theoretical scenarios. He was always the first to come up with something, to answer any of Sinclair's proposed problems that they could find themselves facing in their futures as engineers in any given department they wished to focus on. After the embarrassment she had went through today in her classes with him, she honestly felt like simply admitting this wasn't for her, that she wasn't smart enough. The question had been simple, if when working with a large volume of acidic material what is the best way to disperse without endangering anyone. Monty, had an answer within seconds, saying he would counteract the acid with a base and try to neutralize both in which they could be made into a third substance that might actually be useful for the arc in perhaps a study on a better way to maximize the energy storage aboard. Leah had come up with a simple containment mechanism for moving the acid to a suitable container and simply shooting it out an airlock. She admitted it was stupid, and definitely not a suitable answer but it could work and was different option than Monty's, because having more than one option is always better than just going with the first option someone thinks of.

The only good thing that had came out of their class today was that Kyle Wick, their mentor, seemed impressed with her bit about making sure to have more than one mind coming up with ideas. He even stopped them both before they were dismissed from Sinclair's lesson to remind them, that even in they succeed theoretically it is all about the practical application. "Brilliant minds can dream up things, but if they can't be used they are nothing but the imaginations of a mad man." She had scribbled what he told them at the top of her current notes on radiation.

She heard a quiet tap, followed by a second, then a third and knew it was coming from her closet door. She let out a deep breath and rubbed her eyes, "come in." She didn't turn to look as John entered her room instead she simply laid her head on her desk, she knew she looked exhausted and didn't want to be reminded of that by John at the moment.

"You need anything?" He asked simply walking up and placing a hand on her back. She sat up as he leaned down closer to her desk, she turned her head to him and he seemed to be reading her note over her shoulder, her notes of sheer gibberish. "Radish nation?" He asked simply before turning his head to her, his face unbelievably close to hers. "I didn't know the radish's took over a whole nation, perhaps we should tell the carrots to watch their back." He said with a smile, John being that close never seemed to bother her, perhaps because she didn't see him like most boys. The way she looked at him, must have told him she was aggravated by his presence because he grinned and stood back up, before patting her back gently. "Come on Leah, I was just messing with you."

She knew that, and she wasn't trying to look as aggravated as she clearly did. "Sorry, I know. I just..." She didn't have an excuse, more correctly she had so many excuses she couldn't pick just one. She was stressed out over her work load, she was tired from lack of sleep, she felt inadequate because she always felt like the dumbest person in the room when she was in engineering, and many other reasons but none of them seemed like a good enough reason to take that out on a person who told her she did not have to do any of them. John reminded her everyday since her first meeting that she could quit at any moment, but she was to stubborn to do that.

"You're just stubborn. I know." He said simply, he had walked away from her and had walked over to her dresser and began just to pick up the random things she had thrown atop of it. "I thought I'd check on you before I left, I'd ask if you wanted to come down to Arrow, but I doubt I would let you come even if you waned too." It figured he was going to a party, most students had tomorrow off, a day of relaxation for younger students, a day of practicals for those in internships, or a day of work duty for others. John often went to things like parties, in more stations than most, he didn't seem to care about if he was invited or not, because by the end of the night he always seemed to achieve the welcome he might not have had upon arriving.

She looked at him a tad insulted, she stood up and pulled her hair brush from his hand and put it back on top of her dresser. "Why wouldn't you let me go? You're always saying I need to loosen up, its that the point of parties?" She snapped at him.

"Because you're tired and you need sleep." He was right.

"Did you just come in here to tell me to go to bed?" She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him coldly. "I'm not a child you know, I don't have a bed time."

"I know you aren't a child, but you like to behave like one so I assumed you wanted to be treated like one for a while. How much sleep have you gotten in the last few days? A couple hours a night? You can't go on like that or you are going to do something stupid." He snapped at her tone, she knew that's why his cold blood seemed to boil.

She looked away from him, "I don't need you telling me I'll do something stupid. Aren't you the king of stupid ideas?"

"I was just coming in here to check on you. I am not going to let you piss me off." His tone was cold, he was already angry, but he was pretending not to be. When she refused to look back at him, he shook his head and scoffed before making his way to the door. "Good night Leah." He said simply as he opened and closed her closet door behind him. She listened for him to sneak out of the main door, listening for the quiet unlatching and re-latching of the lock. She wanted to let out a shriek of frustration, but instead she simply walked over to her bed and curled up under her covers, before she even knew a few tears had found their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks she was asleep.

* * *

"Why did we have to meet at Mecha station if our first practical was in Hydro?" Leah stated, clearly annoyed that Wick had called the two of them to Mecha just to make them walk across the Ark with him. "I could be enjoying a cup of tea, waiting on you both in my compartment instead of having to walk back."

"Just think about when you get done, and you can go run home to mommy even faster alright?" Wick responded coldly to her whining. Monty had found it a bit aggravating as well but he hadn't been stupid enough to complain about it to the man who already expressed his distaste for them almost daily.

Leah was dressed in a basic blue flannel long sleeve shirt and tight black jeans, her hair was falling freely around her shoulders, she had been smart and not worn clothing that she couldn't get dirty in like some of the girls would do when they were just attending classes on certain days. Monty had a simple plain t-shirt on and jeans but he probably should have layered something with sleeves on over top of it, but he hadn't been thinking about his clothing choices that morning. Wick was dressed the same way he was every time they had seen him, a plain shirt under a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up and jeans.

"So what are you going to be doing? I mean aside from getting to explore the Ark with an amazing tour guide." Leah snarky remark must have finally struck one of Wick's nerves because he stopped dead in his tracks and spun to face her, Monty stopped in time to watch he crash right into Wick's chest.

She looked startled as Wick glared down at her. "Enough, I do not have time for you attitude. I think I've made it clear, I don't want to baby sit the two of you anyways and you wanting to be a pain in my ass isn't making it any better on either of us sweetheart. Now if you want to cut the dramatics and be an adult I'll be happy to show you, I think you are actually going to oddly enjoy this little task I've arranged. Understand?" His words must have struck her with some fear, or maybe excitement, Monty wasn't sure because all she did was nod and cross her arms over her chest, from then until they reached Hydro stations labs she was silent.

"Alright Green, you are on that station, Pentecost that one." He said directing them to two identical rows of tables in the lab. Each table had a bunch of piece and parts laid on them. "This is simple, on the tables in front of you are a bunch of parts, pieces, junk. I expect you to read the card on each table and build something to solve the problem written on the card. First one to complete all of the problems on their side of the room wins. Winner gets tomorrow off, loser gets to help me clean all this shit up."

The instructions were to simple, Leah knew that. "What's the catch?"

"No catch, I just want to see what pages you both are on practically speaking. Sinclair has challenged you to think, but I want to see what you can actually do. Three problems shouldn't take you either more than three hours right? When either of you think you've finished wake me up and I'll judge if it would actually be a viable way to solve the problem." Wick said as he sat down in a comfortable looking chair and propped his legs up on a nearby crate, probably one of the crates he had pulled this junk from. He looked at his wrist watch and then up at a clock at the other end of them room. "Three hours, I'd get moving if I were you."

Leah grinned, he had been right with his threat earlier, this was something she would enjoy. She watched as Monty picked up the first card and began to read the problem, she instead looked at the items on the table, some tubing, some different types of metal brackets and a box of wire. She then picked up the card, which simply read. **Using these items create something to store the rest of the items.** She re-read the card abut three times, it was to simple. She wondered in all the tasks were this simple, and before starting the first one she moved to the second table and picked up it's card. **If you're thirsty, build something you would be willing to drink out of without losing any liquid.** After a quick glance at the table she realized again this was extremely simple, she looked back to Monty who was simply following the instructions on the first table, using wire to connect brackets together to make something to store the tubing on. It was a good layout and she she watched him, he noticed her glance and looked up at her, shaking his head at her for not starting even the first task yet. Instead she walked to the last time and picked up the final card. It had two words scribbled on it, in Wick's messy hand writing. _Impress me._

Three hours? She wouldn't even need one.

Fifty-five minutes later Leah looked up from the final station, Monty was also on this station, he however was still working. She walked over to Wick and pushed his feet off the crate they were propped up on, startling him awake. "I'm done." She said with a smile.

Wick looked at his watch. "Oh really? What about you Green? Did you finish yet?" Monty looked at them both, stunned. He shook his head, he apparently couldn't believe she had finished already. It seemed like she didn't send more than fifteen minutes on any one table. "Well come over here, lets see what you got sweetheart, maybe you are cut out for this after all."

Leah grinned, and walked over to the first table which she had simply straightened up the wire in the box and made room to fit the brackets and the tubing in their neatly. "Using the items you supplied, I stored them. Why do unnecessary work, when I can just analyze per-existing data and revise it to complete the task." She said as Wick stood across from her Monty at his side, Wick smiling Monty frowning.

He had done unnecessary work, he had read create and assumed the box was just something that was holding the wires so they weren't loose on the table. "How did you solve this one Green?" Wick asked. Monty then walked with him over to his table. The had constructed a simple structure with the brackets and wire that her simply coiled the tubing around. Leah complimented his use of the wire structurally saying the brackets should have collapsed under the weight on the tubing however with how he had ran the and weaved the wire they remained solid. Wick also said it was a clever approach.

Wick wouldn't admit which answer he thought was right just seemed rather impressed by both. "Did you finish the second table?" He asked Monty as he walked over to his second table. He had used some of the plastic sheeting he had on the table and lined the inside of a metal cylinder so that no liquid could leak through, also he assumed the plastic would have less contaminants than the metal. Wick asked how sure he was about that, and pulled a metal flask out of his back pocket. He poured some clear liquid into the makeshift cup Monty had created and handed it back to him, asking if he trusted it enough to drink from it. Monty bit his lip as he took the cup back. He didn't actually look at how clean the plastic was. "You don't have to decide now, its holding up to the first part of the task, lets see if Pentecost's does the same then it will come down to which one of you actually will drink from it." He said with a grin.

Leah happily walked over to her station and handed Wick her design. It was a tube that she had put into the large metal cylinder, the tube sticking directly up. "If you pour a liquid into the cylinder it will store in the bottom, but first it must go throw about five different layers of plastic mesh that I made out of the plastic sheeting, which should theoretically filter out any major contaminants. " She said simply, again Wick smiled and poured a the clear liquid into the cup, it also held the liquid without a problem, and it did slowly collect down in the bottom. She without question put the tube to her lips and used it as a straw. The taste was awful, but she assumed that was whatever the liquid was and not the device itself. "So Green? Are you going to drink." He swallowed hard and also shot back the liquid, however he didn't make the face that Leah made however. "Really? I never would have guessed you take a shot with a straight face like that." He seemed proud of the younger boy for a moment.

"Did you just give us moonshine?" Leah asked astonished.

"Figured you both could use it." Wick said nonchalantly, "now lets see what you came up with for the last station." He said walking over to the final table, her idea was a gutsy move that even if Monty hadn't finished might end up with her losing.

Leah took a deep breath and stood in front Wick and simply handed him the same card that had been present on the table earlier, she had also scribbled something on it beneath his words. Monty looked over Wick's shoulder to read them. _No. There is no merit in impressing someone._ Leah watched trying to read Wick's expression, but the second he smiled, she knew she'd won.

"I can't believe I'm saying this. Congratulations Pentecost. Maybe you are more cut out for this than I thought."

Monty could not believe it was so simple, everything he had been doing, they were all far too thought out than they needed to be. The only one design that Leah had done that was more complex was the cup and he just hadn't actually thought about using his practically or he also would have done something more complex. Wick had allowed Leah to leave and offered to let Monty stay and clean now instead of having to come back and do it the next day. He didn't question the offer and began packing the stuff back into three creates that Wick had pulled it out of. Wick didn't allow him to pack away Leah's filtered cup however instead he took it with him back to Mecha as he left Monty to clean.

"So I take it they did well on your test? Did Green win?" Sinclair asked as Wick walked into his office. Wick however just strolled over to the desk and put Leah's cup design down. Sinclair picked it up and examined it, admiring the handiwork. "Filtration, the boy is thinking even further than I predicted."

"That's Pentecost's, she didn't even take an hour to finish all three. The two of them are the perfect match, he over thinks, she doesn't think enough. He's theoretical circumstances, she's practical. After today, I don't doubt her abilities at all." Wick said simply, sitting down in one of the chairs across from Sinclair. "I think you owe me an apology, I said she'd make it."

Sinclair leaned back in his chair, still examining the different aspects of the design she had come up with it. "It might be a bit early still, lets see if either of our picks last the month first."


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: I really can not wait to write the Monty Leah scenes. John & Leah are just so easy to write, since they are so familiar with each other.

John kept his room in a much more disheveled state than Leah kept hers, personally she never understood how he could live in his organized chaos but he seemed to feel more comfortable in his messy room than he ever did in any other part of their compartment. He was lying on his bed, when she entered his room, she usually would wait for him to come pester her, but she was ecstatic about finally managing to not look like a fool in her internship studies and had to tell someone. Neither of her parents were home yet, though she was sure her mother would be back within the hour to start a meal for when her father returned.

"Don't you know it's afternoon? Shouldn't you perhaps be dressed?" She asked simply as she tossed John a pair of jeans that were by his closet door, where she stood. She hadn't noticed until he sat up rubbing his eyes that he was only wearing his boxers. He let the pants crash next to him on the bed while glaring at her leaning over and resting his arms on his legs.

"Don't you know I didn't even get to sleep until this morning? I heard you leaving before I fell asleep." He said simply trying to shake his grogginess away, she purposely diverted her eyes from him as he sat on his bed. "Why are you back so early anyways? I figured you would be out until at least after Victor got back?"

"I finally showed that idiot Wick that I am not as dumb as I look." She said as she pushed stuff off of his desk chair and tossed it too the floor.

When she looked back up at him, he was at least stepping into his pants. "Well you do look pretty dumb most of the time." He said as he zipped and buttoned the jeans, still seeming to search for shirt. He had picked up one and sniffed it only to throw it back to the side.

"You look dumb not knowing what of your clothing is clean. Do you even use the dresser or just throw shit on top of it?" Leah said with a kind smile, John stopped and smiled at her before masking a bit of a laugh by shaking his head. He would never admit she amused him, his pride wouldn't allow it. "You probably should do some laundry."

"How about you do it and I'll watch?" He smirked at her as he finally found a shirt that passed the smell test to him. He balled it up and tossed it at her. "Tell me, do you think that one smells funny?" His smile was always brilliant when he actually allowed himself to smile honestly.

She swapped the cloth away, "I am not smelling your dirty laundry John," she said laughing. He reached into the top drawer of his dresser and pulled out a plain black shirt and put it on. "Now, are you going to let me tell you about my awesome day of showing off to my asshole mentor, or finally showing that I might be smarter than Monty Green."

"You are smarter than Green, but yeah why not. Dazzle me with the tales of your day, its not like I have anything better to do." He sarcastically, that smile still on his face as he grabbed the small ball off the top of his dresser. Leah explained the challenges that she faced today and made it clear for the first time since she found out she was joining the engineering program that she did not hate it.

* * *

Jasper passed the joint to Monty as they all sat in Harper's room, she was knew to their group but the fact her father was almost never home and her mother had passed away made it the most private place to practice any of their bad habits. A couple of her friends were there too, one was sitting on her desk chatting with a guy who was a year above them, another sat in her desk chair. Monty sat on her bed leaned against the wall next to Jasper who sat next to the owner of the room. "I thought you said engineering was going great." Jasper commented quietly as Monty inhaled deeply, letting it fill his lungs. He handed the joint to Harper and exhaled.

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say, I think our mentor has a favorite because she's you know cute and I'm..." Monty began, only to be interrupted by Harper.

"Maybe you just had a bad day, you should have went to Arrow last night, then you could have blamed you fucking up on being hungover." She said with a smile, but it was far from as comforting as she probably thought it would be.

Monty sighed and pushed himself off the bed, he stood and began to walk out of the room when Jasper questioned his actions. "Ya know I'm going to go sulk in the corner for a bit, god man can't I go piss without telling you." Monty snapped at his friend who proceeded to laugh it off, the group had gathered while Monty was still cleaning up the mess, but thankfully with Jasper being as high as he was he was a bit less invasive about his questions about Leah and what she was wearing. Their were days Monty wished he had was like Jasper, who though he was a dork could talk to women without a problem. Though Monty knew Jasper had less experience in the world of women than he did.

Monty walked out into Harper's living quarters and grabbed his bag from under the kitchen cabinet where he always stored his stuff when he was here. No random kid would find it their, he sat on the floor and pulled his tablet out, he opened an email and before he was fully aware of it he had sent Leah a message, congratulating her on the victory, complaining about the work he to do, but mostly telling her that he was thankful for the upcoming three day break, their schedule was three days classes with Sinclair, followed by two days of practical application with Wick, a two day break, then repeat. Wick was allowing them a final few days of normal life before forcing them to really take on their roles as engineering students.

Minutes passed as he sat their, just staring at the message sent icon, he wasn't even sure why he had sent her the message, he simply just wanted someone to talk to that understood. Of all people, Leah was the only one he felt that could truly understand the hell they had faced for the last few days. Six or so hours of class each day, followed by three to four hours with Sinclair, followed by hours of homework only to hopefully get some food and sleep then wake up and repeat the process. It was unbelievably stressful, they were only fifteen, typically you get selected for internships this year or the next but most of his friends hadn't been accepted yet, so they still had days to relax and be irresponsible.

Monty was brought out of his thoughts when his tablet sounded an alert, telling him a message had arrived in his inbox. He sat up a little straighter as he opened the message.

 **I think Wick just wanted the day off to drink the rest of his moonshine in peace.**

Leah, the face she made when she tasted the moonshine, it was priceless the face of someone who had never tasted the horrible substance before. She was truly innocent when it came to most things he had been coming to realize in recent days. Jasper had asked her if she wanted to come study with him and some friends after they had left Sinclair's office the last night and instead of just accepting or rejecting the offer she asked Jasper why he would want to help her study engineering. Jasper tried to play it cool but when she offered to tutor him to be accepted into the program he gave up and told her maybe another time. It was odd to think the Queen of Hydro was so dense about things like that when she lived with John Murphy the guy who seemed to be one of the guards favorite to threaten with the skybox.

Her message was about as long as the one he had sent her, also complaining about the work load and she even admitting to not being sure she even wanted to do this. Saying today's test just reminded her that even engineers get to do more than sit about and work out simulations. He smiled as he read her message, it was so sincere.

"Monty!" Harper's friend, giggled as she leaned out of Harper's room. "Why are you in the floor? You have to see this, Harper found an old movie to watch." Monty stashed the tablet back in his bag and tucked his bag back away.

He pushed himself off the ground. "Who let her pick a movie? Please don't say its another cartoon." He laughed as he walked back to her room smiling as he walked past the girl, he was happily welcomed back onto Harper's bed, the girl who fetched him clinging close to his side. Though he would have preferred to send another message to Leah, his vices were a tad more tempting this time. "What happened to sharing the wealth?" He asked Jasper who simply handed his friend his relaxation.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: I thought I would take a quick second to explain the schedule that Monty and Leah go through weekly.

Sunday, day off from all classes and internships.

Monday, typical class schedule for assigned year, but no internship responsibilities.

Tuesday, typical class schedule and class with Sinclair for internship.

Wednesday, typical class schedule and class with Sinclair for internship.

Thursday, typical class schedule and class with Sinclair for internship.

Friday, day for internship responsibilities and/or work studies (practical application for internship).

Saturday, day for internship responsibilities.

So by that logic, the story started on a Monday with their first meeting with Sinclair, followed by the three days of studying with him and the last chapter taking place on a Friday with Wick's test of their base skills. Hopefully that helps clear up the question of when things are taking place a little better. Again thank you all for the follows and the views, I really do appreciate them.

Side note: The second half of this chapter makes me think of the song "Here" by Alessia Carr. If anyone was curious.

* * *

"You do know it is Saturday right?" John asked, he was sitting on the opposite end of the couch from Leah who had pulled her legs closer to her to allow John to sit down in the first place. "I think you've taken studying to a whole new level, you haven't put your tablet down since last night." He commented eyeing her suspiciously, it was forced family time in their compartment, however thankfully her mother had to work today so it was just Victor and John present. Victor was preoccupied watching a century old football game and John had been vaguely paying attention to the game as well as Leah's odd obsession with her tablet. "You know Ana doesn't like when you bring schoolwork to family time." He teased, her father so engrossed in the game he didn't seem to even hear their conversation as he barked at the referee on the screen.

Leah turned on the screen on the device and lowered it to glare at John. "Some people don't have the luxury of truly getting a day." She said before taking a deep breath and smiling. "I mean, I should technically be at my internship today, I don't want to look like I didn't take the time off to get in a little extra studying." She took the moment to turn her screen back on and instead of having anything even remotely to do with engineering on it, it simply had her emails open. Messages, the vast majority from Monty Green, since last night they had been exchanging messages, mostly about nothing which she had to admit was a welcome changed compared to the messages she used to receive from classmates. Most of the classmates that sent her messages were asking to meet up to study together or asking if she would send them an answer to a question.

"Victor, I bet the score ends in 20 to 22, Dolphins win." John grinned and Leah shook her head, she hadn't realized it until now but they had been forced to watch this game just a few weeks ago.

Leah's father sighed, "I know its an old game but let me pretend there are still surprises in the world of sports. You two can go do whatever it is teenagers do nowadays if you want, just don't tell Ana." He said simply, Leah often wondered how an free spirited individual like her father ended up with such a strict clean cut woman like her mother. John didn't dare argue with the other and stood and made a straight line to his room and closed the door behind him. Leah just stayed put on the couch, but the moment John left allowed her legs to stretch out.

 **Hey if you are bored later, Harper McIntyre is kind of having a thing, it's here in Agro I think the entire Ark knows by now but if you wanted to come it will probably be pretty awesome. Jasper and I were going to head over there here in a bit, he wanted me to make sure you knew about it.**

The end of Monty's most recent message left Leah feeling uneasy, the words prior had all been about not wanting to get out of bed and having to face the day after what he called an exhausting night of cleaning Wick's messes. She blanked the screen again and brought her feet to the cold floor, her father was still intently watching the third quarter as if he didn't know the outcome of the game, still cheering for the Bengals. She normally would have went to her room and snuck into John's room through the panel, however with her father in such a distracted state she didn't bother. She opened John's door and saw him looking through his school bag, probably for his tablet as well. "Why do you get to barge in, if I have to knock?" He asked as she stepped in and closed the door behind her.

John probably was going to make fun of her, it had been a mistake to come in here, but she wanted his council. "I think I got asked on a date." She was confused and probably sounded just as confused as she felt; Leah crossed the room and sat on his bed.

"Is that suppose to surprise anyone? I've seen countless guys ask you out, you are just to dense to notice it." He said simply, tossing his bag to the side and walking over to her, pulling her tablet from her hands. "I'm borrowing this, I need to check my email." He said simply, she attempted to pull it away from him, but he clicked the screen on too quickly. "Monty Green? Are you serious? That nerd has some major balls." He laughed as pulled away from Leah, not even pretending like she would be strong enough to get the tablet away from him.

"Shut up would you! I don't even know why I came in here." She said punching John in the arm. He jumped away quickly, clearly it had been a bit more forceful than she thought.

"Because you wanted my advice clearly, but you aren't getting shit from me again if you hit me. Got it?" He said as he went and sat down in his desk chair, reading over her personal email from Monty. That was intended for her eyes, not his and it made her blood boil slightly that he didn't seem to care about her privacy one bit. "Seriously Leah, he is just asking if you are going to come out, not asking you to go with him. Hell, everyone knows Jasper Jordan wants in your pants, he's probably just doing his friend a favor and seeing if his dream girl is going to grace them with her presence at some lame party. McIntyre is always throwing parties in an empty living quarters that is connected to hers, no one lives down that way but her now and her dad is never home." John began explaining as he quite literally tossed her tablet onto his desk, no wonder his always came up scratched and damaged. "Why not go? I was only going to check my email to find out what I could get into tonight, I'll go with you..."

"So you can torment me in the company of others?" Leah asked sarcastically.

"No, so I can drink free booze and enjoy the show, I'm sure it will be a funnier movie than anything we have here on the Ark. The Queen of Hydro, getting her shoes dirty down in Agro." John said laughing a bit, he knew she hated that title.

"Do not call me that. I am no queen and I do not understand why people even call me that?" John just laughed louder at her temper flaring.

She walked over and stood in front of the mirror John on had on the back of his door. "I don't know, maybe its the better than most attitude, or the fact you are literally untouchable. Between your parents being friends with Kane and the Chancellor, and the fact that you have never shown even remote interest in a guy or even a girl." He made a point, the only reason John was allowed to live with them was because her father was friends with Kane and Chancellor Jaha. The other point he made was also relevant, she had never thought she had time to be interested in dating or hanging out with people. It wasn't that she wasn't interested per say, she just never really found someone to be interested in. Her closest friend was the boy who lived in the same compartment and most of the time she was pretty sure he just put up with her. "Look, you might not like it but think about it this way, would you rather be known as a queen or as a hoodlum?" She stared at her reflection, she knew who she was referring too. Half of the trouble John got in was brought to the attention of her father and he tended to get it cleared up somehow.

"I wouldn't even know what you'd wear to a party." Leah mumbled quietly.

She looked away from her reflection and pushed a lock of hair out of her face and behind her ear as she looked to John who just smiled at her. "Now this, this is definitely going to spice up McIntyre's party."

"Would you just come on?" John groaned as Leah stared at him pouting. She hadn't been ready when he decided to tell her if she wasn't walking out the compartment door in the next two minutes he would leave without her and make her go all on her own. Two minutes would be barely enough time to sneak past her parents. She had decided on a simple pair of dark wash jeans and a tank top, she had let her hair lay loose over her shoulders, she had to admit that her outfit was definitely not the typical "party" outfit, it was to plain but she didn't imagine an illegal party would have the same social rules as the parties for upper deck affairs.

She remained a few steps behind John as he lead the way and she couldn't stop second guessing her choice to come, she could still turn around after all, no one would ever know. John grabbed her attention as he stopped and reached for her wrist and pulled her roughly to him and pulled her towards the door way, he pressed to into the shadows, his body in front of hers but still hidden as she noticed a couple of guards walking past them. Clearly he knew the guards shift rotation as he smirked at her putting his loose hands finger in front of his lips. She heard the clicking of the guards shoes pass and begin to grow fainter as he smirked at her. "You didn't even see them did you?" He asked to which she shook her head, "you would make the worst criminal I've ever seen."

Leah pushed John away from her as he began laughing. "Good thing I don't plan on being a criminal then." She muttered coldly. "This is a mistake, I am just going home, my nerves can't take this. If breaking curfew, which isn't even really an offense, is this difficult I don't think I can handle a party." Leah crossed her arms in front of her chest, she felt so uncomfortable in her current situation she couldn't imagine actually having fun at this party.

"You make a point, go ahead go back home and I'll tell Green that you had a case of the shits." John grinned at her. Leah glared at him and had to take a deep breath to not smack him. "So you want me to tell everyone who asks that you are stuck on a toilet or are you going to come join me for a drink?" He extended his hand to her and she didn't have to think about her answer, she just simply grabbed hold of his hand and allowed him to lead her through some sketchy looking corridors into some unused corridor of Agro. Harper McIntyre was a gorgeous girl who seemed to have an addiction to being bad, she like John were often in trouble for minor things that thankfully hadn't gotten them sent to the Skybox. She had gotten good extremely good at working the rules and the younger guards into getting away things.

Leah could hear the noise as they turned into a dimly lit corridor, the air quality in this part of the ark wasn't as good as in others but that might also be from the haze coming out from under a door, the room she had found was an old lab space that had been abandoned over the years, probably something to do with the singed markings on the walls. John let go of her hand once they were in and leaned in closer to her, the noise, the people, the air, it was overwhelming at first. "Just breath, I'll find you before I leave. Find me if you need me." He said simply before he disappeared into the mass of people, everyone from their year and probably the year above or maybe below them had to be here. Their was a haze that floated overhead that smelled pretty awful, someone had rigged music to play through some old rebuilt speakers it was dark inside, lit with only about half the lighting that would normally fill a space it's size.

"Holy shit." A voice said in amazement behind Leah, she spun to see a tall boy closing the door to the room and walking towards her. "Pentecost, right?" She couldn't place his name or his face for that matter. She simply smiled at him kindly, beside him another boy appeared this one she could place a name too. Atom, a boy from her class, who often needed her help with homework. "I'm Dax, I've seen you around Hydro." He seemed as nice as Atom often did. "I'm sorry, I just never expected to see someone like you here. I mean... Not you... I mean... Want a drink?" He said simply with an extremely charming smile.

Leah was amused by him fumbling over his words, "sure." She smiled, he seemed extremely nice but she felt a bit annoyed when he snaked his arm around her waist as he ushered towards the side of the room where a table was laid out.

"She said she was coming, I didn't ask for her for an exact time." Monty groaned as Jasper asked yet again if he was sure that Pentecost had agreed to come. He sipped at his drink that Harper had brought over to him as he sat on a table at the back of the lab. A failed experiment resulted in the lab being lit on fire to make sure it was sanitized about fifteen years ago, every year their was a rumor they would reopen sections of Agro like this one but every year they remained barren.

Jasper had his cup sitting on the table as he stood on the ground facing his friend, the crowd of party-goers to his back. Half of them didn't even know who the host of the party was, Harper had the tendency to allow that to happen, she would simply tell about twenty people who would also tell twenty people and then the room would be past capacity within the hour. "By the time she gets here the party will be over at this rate." Jasper whined slightly as Harper came back up to them. She walked up between the two boys and planted her ass on the table next to Monty, causing Jasper to quickly reach for his drink determined not to let it spill.

"Pretty good turn out, huh?" She grinned deviously. "I think this is the largest one I've ever thrown." She said proudly looking between Jasper and Monty, Monty was happy for her but Jasper was clearly still distraught over his dream girl standing them up. Actually, it wasn't them, Jasper hadn't asked her to come, Monty had she was standing up Monty. "What's his problem?" Harper asked looking to Jasper.

"Pentecost stood me up, and he's upset." Monty said simply putting his glass to his lips and taking a large gulp. She had made it stronger than usual.

Harper began laughing before grabbing Jasper's shoulder and spinning him around and pointing to the left side of the room. She leaned over to whisper something in Jasper's ear as she spoke, he seemed to grow more agitated as he she spoke before he eventually just stormed off. Monty eyed Harper curiously as she leaned back up laughing, she leaned closer to Monty so he could hear her clearly. "She just got here with Dax and Atom from Hydro. I mean Jasper is cute and all but did he really think he'd have a chance with her." Harper pointed once more and Monty saw her standing there, in simple clothing unlike most of the girls who came who tried to look their best. Dax had his arm around her waist, as he handed her a cup of the punch the was sitting out that had been additionally spiked by who knows how many people. "I mean, since when does Jasper have the balls to invite a date to a party?" Harper asked continually leaning closer to Monty.

Monty turned towards her, his lips going straight towards her ears. "He didn't; I invited her."

Clearly Harper was surprised because she quickly pulled back and looked at him with a face of shock. "But you said Pentecost stood him up?" Of course Harper didn't hear him clearly. The room was loud and he was to consumed with taking a drink. Monty just grinned and shook his head, Harper just bit her lip feeling bad about poking fun at Jasper and indirectly Monty. She poked fun at Jasper constantly, Monty thought she had a thing for Jasper, but he chose to never call her on it. She pushed herself off the table and held up a finger and mouthed the words "gimme a minute".

Harper ran her hand through her hair, tossing it about before she crossed the room straight towards the Hydro kids. "Leah!" She said loudly catching her attention as well as the boys who stood with her. "I can't believe you came!" She said literally pushing past Atom to toss her arms around Leah's neck, catching the other girl completely off guard. She pulled her towards her, Dax letting his arm fall off Leah. Harper pulled back and smiled at Leah. "Megan and Jessica are never going to believe me that you're here, come with me please." She said with a huge smile. "Don't worry boys, I'll return her eventually I promise." Harper said with a huge smile as he pulled Leah away with her and headed back towards the back of the room. Her mission accomplished.

"Uh. Harper..?" Leah tried to get the other girl's attention as she wove them through people but failed until they hit the back of the room, Harper smiled and hugged her before leaving her standing alone to disappear into the mass of people. Monty looked at the lost girl in front of him and tapped her on the shoulder, he grinned as Leah spun around and let out a clear sigh of relief to be with someone she felt more familiar with.

Leah walked over to Monty who tapped his hand on the table signaling for her to join him, it was nice in the back of the room she had to admit, it was less crowded though there was a bit more haze. "About time, Jasper already gave up on you."

"I honestly couldn't figure out what to wear, shocking for a girl to say right?" She said jumping up onto the table next too him, she inched closer to him, knowing if they weren't close that he would never be able to hear her.

Her shoulder brushing up against his made him slightly on edge, she was so close like how some of Harper's friends would get when they had to much to drink or wanted something from him. "I guess it would be harder for you, you actually go to the Ark parties in Geo-Sci. You look gorgeous if that makes you feel any better." He said with a smile, she felt a bit of heat rising to her cheeks, "I honestly didn't think you'd come." He said sincerely.

"John saw my email and then I didn't really have much of a choice unless I wanted him to make fun of me for the next year or so." She admitted laughing slightly, Monty couldn't help but notice how genuine her smile was now, not like the ones she faked for Sinclair about being happy to be chosen for Engineering or the one she would give people in class when they asked for her help.

Monty couldn't help thinking he didn't actually know her, probably only a handful of people knew the real Leah Pentecost, most just knew the happy pleasant mask she wore for the public. John Murphy was probably one of those people, at one point last year someone asked Murphy how she was in bed and the other boy ended up with bruised face and Murphy ended up in the Guards office. After that point no one asked Murphy about Leah, it was clear their relationship was that of friends or maybe even family but nothing romantic like the rumors had painted. He doubted that she even knew that John had gotten into a fight over her, she seemed to remain in a state of blissful ignorance about the bad in the world. "Well I'm glad you made it." Monty said realizing he was probably thinking to himself for too long as Leah began to stare out to the mass of bodies in front of them, probably trying to pick out people she knew. She brought the cup she had brought over with her to her lips and yet again made the ridiculous face she made when Wick had gave her moonshine. "The taste gets better, it just takes a while to get used too." Monty laughed as she set the drink on the table.

"I don't think I want to get used too it." Leah said trying to shake the taste out of her mouth.

Jasper was chatting with Jessica and Fox when Harper came up grinning ear to ear. She took the joint from Jasper's fingers and took a deep breath clearly extremely pleased with herself before handing it to Fox who just looked at it confused, the girl was a bit dense. "Did you get another confession of undying love or something?" Jasper asked as Harper exhaled a cloud of smoke coming from her lips.

She shook her head grinning her hair dancing around her face. "Not for me at least," she said nodding back to the back of the room where Leah was now sitting extremely closely to Monty. Jasper felt a pang of jealousy for his friend before admitting they looked to be happy together. "I mean, they are both super geniuses after all."

"Better not let Murphy see," Fox said simply, passing the joint around not touching it herself. "You know I don't even know why anyone bothered to invite her. This isn't her kind of thing you can tell just by looking at her." Fox said mostly commenting on the plainness of her outfit, Fox always went all out to look her best for these parties but like Monty had mentioned before it wasn't like she would ever be at one of the Ark sponsored gatherings without having married into the status.

"Fox shut up, stop being a jealous bitch, you're just mad more people are paying attention to her." Jessica said while exhaling. "Let Monty get his kicks with the pretty girl and go find one of the other guys in here to compliment your outfit." She knew Fox liked Monty because he always would compliment her, mostly out of being raised to be kind to others. It was clear he didn't really have any interest in her other than possibly friendship but more just like friendly acquaintances.

Fox scoffed as Harper laughed, Jasper however couldn't shake how close Monty was sitting to the girl, how at ease he seemed. They were laughing about something, Leah looked genuinely happy and that made her even more beautiful. Jasper bit the inside of his lip as he turned away from his best friend, he shouldn't feel jealous of him he should feel for happy for him but something made that feel impossible. "I need a drink." Jasper said looking to Harper. "Want one?" He asked and she smiled nodding, the two walked through the mob of bodies in the center of the room to the other side where she had set up the table of punch and alcohol.

While Jasper filled two glasses, Harper rolled her eyes at the boy. "Are you seriously going to be jealous over nothing?" She questioned as Jasper handed her glass.

"He wouldn't have even invited her if I hadn't asked him too." Jasper said quietly into his cup, after taking a large gulp he lowered his glass.

"You know they are probably talking about how he rigged up the speakers in here with burnt wires and part." Harper pointed out and Jasper couldn't help but feel a bit ridiculous for being jealous of two people simply talking.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: This chapter was originally going to be part of the last chapter but then the word count got really high for chapter four and I decided to split it into two. Guys trust me it was worth the wait. I am currently rewatching season one of the 100 and I can tell you, I intend for this story to go through to at least season two. I had so much fun writing the parts between Leah and Monty, I originally had another section written with Atom but I cut it in favor of this instead. I prefer this route so hopefully you will as well.

As always thank you for the favorites, follows, views, ect. I love seeing the numbers rise on this story.

* * *

"That is both ingenious and completely ridiculous, all the spare wire lying about in these areas and you re purposed the damaged stuff?" Leah said laughing at Monty as he explained why the music filling the room sounded just a bit off.

"I worked with what I had, and it works that's what is important, plus how was I suppose to know Wick had trunks of loose parts lying around a spare room in Hydro station." Monty had been enjoying talking to Leah, it felt almost like everyone else in the room had disappeared and it was only their conversation that was real.

"Wick is going to be a huge pain in our ass but I hate to say it we might actually learn something from him. I mean all Sinclair does is tell us stuff and overload our brains, at least Wick lets up do something aside from take notes."

"Notes like radish nation?" Monty commented interrupting her.

"Were you reading over my shoulder?" Leah asked in shock. The other day she had been so exhausted by the end of lessons with Sinclair she was writing the sounds that she thought made up the words that Sinclair was saying.

Leah scanned the room looking for John, she hated to admit it but she was growing tired. She wasn't used to the late nights like the majority of kids their age. "Looking for someone?" Monty said noticing her scanning the crowd.

"Oh uh..." She had been caught. "I just was looking for John, I thought I would tell him before I leave, I don't want to ruin his fun but I also don't want him to freak out." She said simply lowering her head, her hair falling over her face. She was probably worried about insulting Monty by wanting to leave.

Monty jumped off the table, and offered his hand to her. "I'll take you back to Hydro, Harper can tell Murphy you left." He said with a smile.

Leah took a moment to look at his kind smile before taking his hand. "Are you sure? Its past curfew, and it's really far out of your way." He nodded and lead her through the crowd to Harper who was now with a couple of girls that had to be the year ahead of theirs, Leah couldn't place either name.

Harper's eyes darted straight down to Monty's hand in hers and Leah quickly pulled her hand away the heat coming back to her cheeks without warning. She didn't know why she felt embarrassed to be holding Monty's hand, perhaps it was just Harper's smug little grin. "What's up?" She asked Monty simply.

"I am going to take Leah back to Hydro, she's not feeling well. If you see Murphy will you tell him?" Monty told Harper who's grin only seemed to be growing.

"Yeah, sure. See you both in class." She said with a smile, putting a hand on Monty's shoulder winking at him, he shrugged it off and rolled his eyes.

Monty wove through the people to the door like a professional. Leah wasn't quite as skilled as he was and bumped into a couple of people and made it to the door as well. He opened the door and waited for her to walk out first before leaving the party himself. "You know, I can make it back myself."

"You got lost getting to Sinclair's office for our first meeting." Monty pointed out playfully. "I doubt you could even make it out of Agro without being caught by a guard." They were walking side by side, matching step for step.

"I don't get lost, I just explore more of the Ark than most people." She said simply, crossing her arms over her chest playfully.

Monty laughed as they rounded another corner, leading to a hallways on the outer edge of Agro. The windows lined the corridor, at this time of night the windows faced down to the earth, he was used to the sight but it made Leah freeze in her tracks. She stopped and looked out the window, the light of the stars lighting her face along with the dim corridor lights, she looked amazing. "It's so beautiful." She said staring at the earth. They were destined to live and die in space, never to see the beauty that was on the earth when the last of the grounders on the ark had died. Monty couldn't help but agree it was beautiful but his eyes were not sitting on the earth, they were staring at her; her gentle smile, the way her arms were wrapped around her, the way the light was reflecting in her crystal eyes. Monty had to blame the alcohol in his system for what he did next, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. He stepped up next to her and put his hand to her cheek and turned her head to look at him, she looked a bit confused as to what he was doing which was confirmed by the squeak of a word she tried to say before Monty placed his lips on hers. His hands still on her cheek, all of her skin was so soft, her cheek, but most importantly her lips.

* * *

John could have punched Harper McIntrye in the face when she came tapping on his shoulder while his lips were engaged with Bree, a girl from Factory station. She had made it almost too easy, he was talking with her for a few minutes and then her lips were on his and they had made it to the wall were she was standing facing only him keeping him extremely distracted from the crowds of people in the room. When Harper interrupted them, Bree scoffed coldly and in an annoyed tone but John just glared at her. "What McIntyre if you can't tell I'm kind of busy."

"I'm just delivering a message, Leah wasn't feeling well so Monty is taking her back to Hydro." Harper said so offhandedly that John grew more annoyed. John had told Leah specifically when she wanted to leave just come find him, but then again he was the one who was on the outskirts, seemingly busy with a girl.

"When did they leave?" John asked and Bree looked at him like he was insane.

"Really Murphy? Why does it matter?" Bree's voice was telling him that it was probably a good thing they stopped there, she was going to be clingy.

"About five or so minutes ago." Harper answered simply.

John looked back to Bree, and gave her his charming smile. "Sorry, I gotta go, maybe we can pick this up later." He said kissing her quickly one more time on the lips only for her to push him away roughly and storm off into the crowd of people. "Thanks McIntyre." John said as he walked past her and quickly made his way out the door, he walked a little faster than normal, he would catch up to them quickly hopefully.

He had to admit it was mostly in self-interest that he didn't want Leah to get home before him, the compartment door opening not only once but twice after curfew was bound to be noticed. He turned the corner and saw two bodies standing in front of the massive windows of Agro, he froze in his tracks when he saw what they were doing. He stood there for a moment before he slipped back behind the wall back into the previous corridor. He leaned his back against the wall and took a deep breath. The anger that was filling him at the moment was unfair and he knew that. The thought of Leah's lips being pressed against anyone's made him feel sick. He wanted to just go pull her away from him and slug him in the face, but he knew that was irrational and that she wouldn't forgive such a rash reaction. The cold metal wall to his back was bringing him some comfort, he tilted his head back to rest the back of his head against the wall too, swallowing hard. His peace interrupted by a quiet laugh, her quiet laugh, even the coolness of the wall couldn't calm his growing annoyance. He pushed himself off the wall and began walking the long way back to Hydro, his mood for the party was officially over.

* * *

Leah's eyes widen with surprise as Monty pressed his lips against hers gently. They were soft, seemingly fit perfect with hers, however she was unable to escape the feeling of shock. Why? Why had he done that? Monty was her partner in engineering, she imagined what would happen if this went badly. If you had partners or a team for an internship it was an unwritten rule that you did not date them. He must have noticed her lack of reaction because he pulled away, turning redder by the second and put his hand in his hair. "I'm... uh... sorry... I just..." He couldn't figure out what to say, so she decided to break the tension for him and laugh gently. That caught him off guard as his eyes went back to her. "What's so funny?" He asked embarrassment still reading clearly on his face and in his voice.

"You." She said simply with a smile, her cheeks were still tinged red from the shock of the kiss earlier. "I feel like you could pull what just happened out of one of those teen romance stories in the ark database. Two people alone, surrounded by a beautiful sight, the girl commenting on the beauty the boy instead kisses the girl..." Her smile must have put him a bit at ease because his face began to become less red and he too began to laugh gently. "I think that punch might have went to your brain a bit too much Monty." She reached out and grabbed hold of his hand, not saying another word he took hold of hers lacing their fingers together and began their walk back to Hydro.

When they were a couple corridors from her compartment Leah told Monty she would go the rest of the way herself, he attempted to offer to take her the rest of the way but she quickly shut him down saying she didn't need a guard this close to home. Monty eventually agreed to let her and she walked away from him as if nothing had happened between them minutes earlier.

She walked quietly and was surprised when she saw John leaned against their compartment door seemingly waiting on her. "John?" She asked quietly, he just raised a finger to his mouth and she nodded.

He pushed open the compartment door, enough for them both to slip through the gap and pushed it closed behind him, the two of them walked quietly into John's room. He walked in and walked directly to his bed and threw himself on it. "Hey, thanks for uh... going with me. It was fun." She said with a smile she couldn't seem to brush off her lips.

"Yeah, I saw you're fun. Glad I could be a part of that." John said each word dripping in more sarcasm than the last, Leah could tell he was not in a good mood but his tone caught her off guard.

Leah took a deep breath before she walked to John's closet and used the panel to slip into her own room. She walked over to her bad and sat on the edge trying to decide whether she should think about what had happened tonight with Monty or if she should write it off as his drunken little mistake. Everyone she knew who drank had made one, she couldn't judge someone on that.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: YAY! It only took five chapters to have a disappointing kiss but hey, what else do you expect with a slow burn like this one. Thanks for sticking with me.

* * *

It had been two weeks; two weeks and Leah hadn't said anything about the fact that Monty had kissed her that night. She avoided him the next two days, sending the occasional email asking about Engineering or complaining about Sinclair or Wick but aside from that nothing. Monty told Jasper what happened the day after feeling like an idiot and Jasper told him she probably just didn't want to hurt his feelings. Leah could be with a guy like Atom, why would she choose to be with Monty. It was exactly a two weeks later, their second day with Wick that Monty got the courage to question her on that night to which she responded simply, she thought he had made a mistake. That they were partners, that they needed to keep focused on their studies. Monty agreed even though he didn't want too; she had a point just this week Wick had given them a what-if scenario to work out that if the plan they came up with had been chosen as the best option, it would have left at least fifty dead from being in the wrong section at the wrong time. Wick called it a successful failure, and told them always to think of the greater good while working out situations like the one he proposed. Leah took it hard, saying greater good was not worth fifty lives in her opinion and would much rather have taken the course that took longer with no loss of life. Wick mumbled something about not always having the time one wants to fix a situation. He was clearly agitated, mostly with Leah but had dismissed them for the night.

Monty took a deep breath as he sat in his room, his mother had just called him to dinner but he knew he wouldn't be ready to face them yet. They were proud of their son and his internship in Engineering, but the more he went, the more he realized he might not be meant for it. He was no Wick who found enjoyment in writing out masses of scenarios that might result in the a success but most of the time resulted in complete failure. He heard his mother call again and this time pushed himself out of his chair, the idea of eating made him feel sick. The pain in his gut was miserable, but the idea of facing his parents at the moment was exhausting. The third time his mother called he left the safety of his room to join them.

* * *

"A month of intense studying and you think they are ready for me to take them into the field? You must be joking." Wick was standing in Sinclair's office. Sure Monty was a genius, and Leah had the knack of taking whatever was around and making her situation work but he did not believe in either of them enough to have them work in the situation that Sinclair had suggested.

Sinclair handed him a tablet with the details of the scrubber they would be helping a couple engineers and mechanics in Hydro rebuild. It was pretty simple, the only part even remotely dangerous was the tools they might be called on to use and the fact that there was acid in certain parts of the system. It was extremely simple, even easier than the one that had been given to Wick and his group as their first real assignment. "I believe you can show them how to take schematics that they haven't designed and work for whatever has been decided by the council. As you know, not all your designs are the ones that gets chosen." Sinclair said simply before going back to his computer screen analyzing something to do with earth's theoretical radiation levels.

"Wait this rebuild is scheduled for Tuesday, you are letting them out of class with you?" Wick said tossing himself in a chair as he read through the report details.

"Something has been brought to our attention that I am assisting another engineer with for the week, I'm sure you can keep them busy for a few extra days." Sinclair didn't take his eyes off his screen.

Wick sighed and scrolled through the documents. "You mean, I get to babysit some kids while you get to be a real scientist." He muttered coldly. "I didn't think being your apprentice was going to be so riveting, sir." Sarcasm being almost like a second language to Wick it rolled off his tongue like it was nothing.

"As my apprentice I expect you do to the things I am too busy to do." Sinclair said looking up from the screen, "which includes teaching them. You should really see it as a compliment, I think you are good enough to teach the next your future apprentice without supervision." He said adding a charming smile, Sinclair always could sugar-coat things in a way that drove Wick insane.

* * *

Wick suppressed a laugh at the idea that either of those two would ever be an apprentice under him, he wanted someone with raw talent, not one of those two. "Yeah, like those two will last that long. My bet is one leaves within the first year, hell I wouldn't even give them six months." He said simply, pushing himself out of the chair. "I'll get them to work on it, but when the mechanics come and complain to you about them being in the way you can deal with it."

* * *

Wick had emailed them two nights ago with a file containing a detailed schematic for a rebuild on a scrubber, one like Leah's father sometimes would work on. It had corroded overtime, they often were taken offline, cleaned and rebuilt. So when she received the schematics with the project portfolio she felt like this was going to be an easy rebuild.

Yesterday, Wick had met Monty and her at the scrubber and they had all assisted the assigned engineers and mechanics on disabling and taking certain parts of the machine apart. That was all they had to do yesterday and Leah felt like Monty and her had proven that they could work well in the group with the others. Today, they were going to use an acid to wash the system and then drain the acid back into a tank that was often stored near the scrubbers. So that by tomorrow it would be fully operational within the day. Today was suppose to be an easy day for them.

Leah had been assigned to work with a mechanic named Bishop, he was extremely kind and knew Leah's father quite well telling her about the days when her father first trained him to work on these machines, doing the exact thing she was doing now. Monty was paired with one of the engineers on the project that seemed to be putting on a big show for the two future engineers, claiming this task was extremely challenging but to not worry because they would get through it together. Wick mostly just assisted whoever needed it at the time, bouncing about lending a hand to engineers and mechanics alike. Of the team of eight, three were engineers (including Wick) and five were mechanics, then the two students. Leah admitted to Bishop that she had never heard of her father having a team this large.

The beginning of the day went well, setting up the device that would pump the acid into the scrubber that would erode the build up of minerals on the scrubber. All of the lines were set and seemed to be in the correct position until the engineer Monty was working with, Masters as Wick called him, flipped the pump on.

It all happened in a blur that Leah could only describe as chaos. She and Bishop were standing close to the pump when the hose broke lose. Though Leah read the type of acid used in the operation but she couldn't tell the type as it hit her skin and clothing, it also spraying onto Bishop, both lunged towards the emergency shut off switch, Leah's hand getting to it first. Wick barked something, she heard that and it was Bishop who got her attention as he told her to back away from the liquid that was still leaking slightly out of the hose, the spray that had gotten on Bishop, it appeared to mostly be on his jumpsuit which as he walked backwards away from the substance he was pulling himself out of.

Leah began backing away from it, realizing her wrist was burning badly, she also began to pull off the long sleeved shirt she was wearing, not bothering with buttons as the popped off just trying to as quickly as possible get it off before it made contact with her skin through the shirt. Wick's hands appeared on her shoulders as she was pulled and then shoved into a small enclosed glass box, Bishop in a similar one on the other side of the room. "Leah, close your eyes!" Wick commanded as she heard the sound of pipes shaking, she did as she was told as a freezing cold liquid poured over her head. "Leah, you'll be okay." She heard Wick say through the glass, however the pain that was radiating from her wrist, and most of her right side told her otherwise. She opened her eyes and looked down to see the solution that smelled and tasted like saline was coming off of her in a pink tinge, she saw her pants, now dark from the solution clinging to her skin had large burned patches in them. She began to panic, even though she could hear Wick trying to calm her from the other side of the glass.

* * *

Masters pressed a button on the wall and the pump kicked on without fail, though a moment later Leah shrieked and Bishop yelled. Monty looked over to see the hose connected to the pump on their end had either slipped off the opening or had burst and the acid had hit the both of them. Leah and Masters' hit the button as fast as they could which kicked the machine off again. Monty was grabbed by one of the other engineer in the room and pulled away, as he watched Wick jump from where he was and run over to Leah who was backing up hurriedly trying to get the shirt she was wearing off as Bishop tried to shimmy out of his jumpsuit. "Someone alert medical!" Bishop said as he put himself into a glass containment shower. Monty knew they would run for two minutes, in which saline would be poured over whoever was in it.

"Are you hurt Bishop?" Masters yelled through the glass as the engineer near Monty got on his comm and made a broadcast to monitoring that there was a malfunction in scrubber room D, two possibly injured, medical needed to be in route.

Bishop seemed to be checking over his body, shaking his head. "No sir!"

Leah it seemed took longer to get into the containment shower, Wick barked at her to close her eyes as he flipped it on. She seemed to be in a much more dazed state than Bishop had been. "Leah, you'll be okay." Wick said as calmly as he could trying not to put the girl in hysterics.

"Wick!" Masters announced, Monty knew he was waiting on an update about Leah.

It was another mechanic that told him of her condition. "She got hit on her right side, and she wasn't wearing the jumpsuits the mechanics are, that acid would eat through normal cloth in seconds sir."

"Victor is just in pump room H," another mechanic said. "Andrew go get him!" He ordered the mechanic who had told Masters about Leah, who without a word ran from the room and out into the hallway. "James! Get that kid out of here, all nonessential personnel need to vacate the area." He said in a commanding tone, however to his surprise it was Masters who grabbed Monty by the arm and began to drag him from the room. He pushed him across the hall against the wall where two of the original mechanics in the room stood as well. Masters ducked back into the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

"Leah!" Wick's voice was becoming quieter and quieter as the sound of rushing water was taking over, she wasn't sure when it had happened but her leg had given out and she had fallen against the side of the glass box, slowly allowing herself to slide to the floor. "Look at me! Come on!" Wick's voice seemed to be going further away as the water began to slow and she heard the sound of a click. She raised her head, as much as she could too see Wick kneeling outside of the door to the box.

As soon as he heard the click he sprang to his feet and pulled the door open, pulling off the jacket he was wearing to pull it around her shoulders. She hadn't fully realized until now she was left simply in a bra when she had torn out of her long sleeved shirt. He didn't seem to mind the water that was now coming down much more gently than before as it tried to finish vacating the pipe above her head as he reached in and began to scoop her off the floor. One arm went under her knees, the other picked up her arm and put it around his neck, then went around her back as he began to lift her off the floor. "You need to stay awake kid, I know it hurts." He said as calmly as he could, though she could tell by the way he was shaking he wasn't calm, her head fell against his chest as she went into the air. "Masters! Where is medical?!" He barked as he carefully carried her across the room, it was as he was carrying her that she noticed she was crying. That her arm was dangled around her neck and if he for some reason lost grip on her she would fall to the floor. She closed her hand grabbing hold of a bit of the fabric from his shirt that was already becoming damp from getting her from the shower.

As if on cue, a man and a woman came through the door, a gurney with the man; followed closely by her father as she heard his voice before the woman began to speak. "Leah!" Wick set her on the gurney as Leah's eyes fluttered opened and closed without reason she saw her father's face. "Abby," he began only for the woman to interrupt him.

"Victor, go get Ana and meet us at Medical, Jackson lets get her down there, she's got some serious acid burns on her right arm and leg," she said as began pulling Leah's extremities to lay flat on the gurney. "Leah, I know it hurts, but you have got to stay awake okay? Just keep your eyes open." She said as Leah noticed the walls of the ark passing by her quickly, though each time she blinked she seemed to notice they were in another area and the Doctor Griffin was again telling her to keep her eyes open.

* * *

Monty watched helpless as the gurney arrived and departed with Leah, the mechanic who seemed to actually be in control, walking towards Agro with Leah's father who was shaking demanding to know what he was suppose to tell his wife had happened to their daughter. Bishop walked out next with a blanket pulled around his shoulder with the Masters who demanded he go to Medical. Wick was the last person out of the room and Monty saw anger in his eyes. Wick ran his hand through his shaggy hair that Monty noted appeared to be wet. "Sinclair is going to Medical as well Wick, you might want to go brief him on what happened." The engineer with the comm told Wick who just stared off in the direction of Medical. "James and I will stay behind and look into what happened." He told him putting a hand on Wick's shoulder which he quickly shrugged away from. Wick didn't say anything as he walked slowly towards medical. It was the other engineer who told Monty he was dismissed for the day, that he would have Sinclair contact him and if he wanted he would probably be able to visit the girl as he called her in a few hours in medical once they get her patched up.

Monty stood there for a moment in shock as the people around him began to head in different directions. He wasn't sure what to do so he just picked a direction and began walking. It wasn't until he heard Jasper's voice that he realized he had found his way into Alpha station towards the Hub that awoke him from his almost dreamlike state. "Dude, was that really Pentecost they ran by here with earlier. She was screaming, what happened?" Jasper sounded panicked, he noticed the other people looking at him for answers.

"I... I dont know..." Monty couldn't focus on anyone face or anything for more than a second, his mind was racing. What had happened? He had checked that hose personally. It was secure. He thought it was secure.

* * *

Leah's eyes fluttered open when she heard the sound of the beeping monitor to her side, she felt light almost like she was floating on the bed she was in. She looked down and saw her hand a monitor clip to her finger, their were tubes coming into her arm and she began to panic, her stirring caused something to move on the other side of the bed. Wick's blonde head, that had to have been resting on the foot of the bed came up and stared at her for a moment. She felt terrified, last thing she could fully remember was the burning feeling being washed away by the ice cold substance that poured over her. "Hey sweetheart," He looked overjoyed to see her, an expression she had never seen on Wick's face before. "How are you feeling?" His voice was light, almost melodic to her ears.

"Kinda numb..?" The words came out even quieter than she intended.

Wick's mouth curled into a smile, that she found comfort in. "Only kind of? I guess that means Doctor Griffin didn't give you enough morphine." He said as he stood up. "Stay here, I am going to go tell her you're awake and go get your parents. They went to go argue about who's fault this was out in the hall so they wouldn't wake you." He said simply, he went to leave when Leah's voice squeaked she was attempting to tell him to give her another minute of silence, but the words didn't come out. He let out a light laugh and sat back down in the chair at the foot of her bed. "Just let me know when your ready sweetheart." He leaned back in the chair, and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes drifted back closed, she wanted to ask him a few questions but she also did not want to keep her eyes open, moments later as she tried the room became blurry with each blink and her eyes closed once again.

* * *

The next time Leah opened her eyes she was greeted by Doctor Griffin who was standing next to her bed with a table notating her condition she assumed. Wick was gone, and she found herself questioning how long she had been asleep. "Well good morning Leah, how are we feeling today?" Doctor Griffin asked politely as she picked up Leah's right arm which made her wince.

"Not great..." Leah said simply.

"One a scale of one to ten how much bad is your pain?" Doctor Griffin seemed to be keeping it extremely professional which means she probably wouldn't want to answer questions about what happened.

Leah tried to push herself up in the bed a little bit more trying to sit up but failing. "I dont know, I just feel like my entire body is being poked with little needles." She said simply, when Doctor Griffin gave her a look she came up with a number, "Six, I guess." She said simply. "Where's Wick?"

Doctor Griffin looked up from the screen to give Leah an amused look. "I sent him to go get something to eat. He didn't leave once we let him in here yesterday," Doctor Griffin seemed to be looking for a response from Leah but instead she just looked at the monitors to her left and right. "If you are up for visitors I will call your parents and let them know you are awake." Leah just nodded and watched the lines bounce on the screen. "Leah, do you have any questions?" Doctor Griffin sat down in the chair that Wick had occupied last time Leah had been awake.

Leah managed to sit herself up properly. "What happened?" Leah said quietly. She honestly felt stupid asking, she should know what happened but the last thing she remembered was an ice cold shower.

"A lose hose to the acid containment vat," Doctor Griffin made it sound as simple as a basic math problem. "You suffered some chemical burns on your right wrist and right leg, they aren't as bad as they seemed at first but there will probably be some minor scarring." Leah tried to remained focused on Doctor Griffins voice.

"Can you let my parents know I'm up now?" Leah asked, to which Doctor Griffin agreed to and got up and left Leah alone. Alone and numb, Leah had to admit she hated everything about this feeling.


	7. Chapter 7

Alright guys, finally an update. I am going to just say now, a part of this update had been written since before I wrote the first chapter. It was one of the three scenes I wrote for a certain character, just like the other main love interest. So I am going to say I hope you all like it. Thank you for all the views and love I get for this fic, I really do appreciate it.

* * *

John had been waiting for a chance to visit Leah when Victor came out of the medical and told him to wait for them at the compartment, that Leah wouldn't be taking any visitors today. John had heard from a couple of the other boys about what had happened in Hydro hours earlier, the fact that Victor was calm settled John's nerves a bit but there was no way he wanted to go home and not see her. "Vic, I just want to see that..." 

"Go home John." Victor said sternly in a voice that told him not to argue and just to follow orders. John stood up and walked off to Hydro with his hands shoved so deep in his picket he felt the bottoms would rip out at any moment. He walked by some of her classmates and by Monty Green, he had been there but now he was sitting waiting outside of medical just like the few others that showed. Victor hadn't demanded they leave but Victor also wasn't their responsible guardian.

It was hours before they got home, Ana was still crying when Victor came in and sat down in the chair he usually found himself in. He instantly leaned over onto his knees and ran his hand through his graying hair. Ana sat on the arm of the chair and placed a hand on his shoulder. John waited for Victor to initiate the conversation. "She is going to be okay. Just some minor scarring, it was an accident when they were starting the scrubber cleaning, its happened on occasion." Victor explained the situation simply, as though not to worry John as much.

"She will be dropping out of engineering as soon as she is better. We've already spoken to Sinclair, though I really cant understand why she was in that situation without him to start with. This should have never happened." From the tone of her voice Ana was still clearly upset with how things were handled, blaming everyone she could for her daughters injury.

"If you would have let her quit back when she first had doubts it would have never happened." John muttered as he stood to leave the room, however Ana stood in his way.

"What was that?" Her voice was stern and cold, "if you have something to say..."

"Yeah I do, she didn't want to be an engineer from the start, she never has but you wouldn't know that would you?" John said stopping as she wished him too. "She has been working and staying up all night trying to impress you and now you are going to make her quit just because of an acci..." John's words were cut off by the sound of Ana's hand meeting John's face. Victor stood up barking his wife's name which brought her back to her sense. She quickly excuse herself and disappeared to the bedroom, Victor following right behind her while John stood there in complete shock. The fact that Ana had finally snapped on him wasn't a complete surprise, hell he kind of deserved it but the fact it took so long for them to come to blows shocked him.

* * *

"Green, what the hell kind of answer is that?' Wick said looking over Monty's shoulder as he wrote out the equation that he had thought he had solved properly. "You some how dropped ten right here... I mean did you really think you would need that little oxygen for that big of an air lock?" Wick tossed himself in his chair and ran his hand through his sandy hair. Monty couldn't focus on a basic equation, Leah was getting released today and from what Sinclair had told both Wick and himself, she would not be coming back to classes. "Can you please focus on today's class, if not can you pretend too so I can pretend that I want to be here."

"Isn't that what you already do?" Monty's quip clearly didn't strike a chord with Wick as the older boy glared daggers at the younger.

"Alright, sit." Wick ordered more than asked, Monty took a seat on a stool that Wick kept by his work bench. "I know you still feel guilty, but it isn't your fault. Accidents happen, more often than we like to admit at times, but they happen. You just have to move on, I mean yeah it's going to suck being stuck with just Sinclair and me, but she's a smart girl, if she wants back in, Sinclair is bound to let her come back." He looked at the younger boy with a genuine smile, one of the few times Monty could remember him doing so actually. "How about I let you out for the day and you go try to convince her that she should not drop out. It'd be a shame to let such a brilliant mind get stuck in somewhere boring like medical or something." Wick said standing you and walking over to the board Monty's botched equation was on. Wick wiped it off with a cloth and Monty sat there unsure if Wick was being serious. "I wont tell you to leave again." Wick stated without turning around. Monty didn't wait for another reminder to leave, he grabbed his bag and headed out of Wick's office which he assumed doubled as Wick's residence by the fact that there was a well used cot in the corner of his office.

Wick took a deep breath as he heard the door close, Victor had told him that he appreciated what he did for his daughter, that she would be a lot worse off if he hadn't gotten her to the decontamination shower, but Wick still felt responsible. He hadn't double checked his students work, he just trusted that it would be done correctly. He asked Sinclair to be removed as their mentor, but was told no. Sinclair insisted that Wick was the best suited for the job, and if he had to replace Wick he would have to pull someone else off of another project, he trusted Wick's ability to multitask. Teaching and working out solutions to the life support problem. Sinclair kept saying it was just in case of emergency, that nothing was wrong with life support but that was because Wick didn't technically have clearance to know that there was something actually wrong with life support, however the fact that that Griffin was acting off and seemed stressed constantly told Wick something real was going on.

Wick walked back to his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. He secretly wished he had someone to go over this with, but he knew Monty would jump to the same conclusions the Wick had, he would figure it out, which would cause unnecessary worry. He had hoped to one day give it to Leah as an circumstantial assignment, she was clever but he didn't believe she would think much of it, but from the meeting Wick had had with Sinclair and her parents, her mother had no intention of allowing her daughter to continue her education in Engineering or allow her anywhere near Wick again.

* * *

"So Wick let you out of class to go see Pentecost, but you are sitting on my bed getting baked instead." Harper said staring at Monty. Monty and Jasper had been passing their herb back in forth for a bit now, without her partaking but she didn't need to be a buzzkill. "Do you really see nothing wrong with this?" 

"Maybe I'd rather spend my spare time with my friends." Monty responded back, thinking himself slightly clever.

"Or maybe you're afraid to go see her?" Harper asked as she walked over and pulled the blunt from Monty's hand as he went to pass it on to Jasper.

"The rules are puff puff pass, buzzkill." Jasper said in an annoyed tone.

Harper took it away completely dropping it in a half empty glass of water that was sitting on the table next to her bed. "Both of you get out," Monty couldn't understand why she was being this way but it was Jasper who spoke for him.

"Seriously? Come on Harper, ever think he feels guilty about that whole 'shit I am probably the reason you got covered in acid and have been in medical all week', I mean shit I would." Jasper said and Monty found himself staring at the wasted joint in the water. "Just sayin." Jasper said when he realized what he said was exactly what Monty probably was feeling.

The only people he had admitted he hadn't checked the hose too was Jasper and Harper, he had told them in confidence hoping they would try to set his mind at ease. It had done the opposite, Jasper had flipped his shit, demanding they go check on her in medical and Harper insisted Monty should tell her, he didn't do either. Jasper and Harper had both been to visit her, so had Wick and Sinclair, but Monty couldn't bring himself to go.

"Just go talk to her Monty, I mean what's the worst that could happen?" Harper asked, she seemed to genuinely care that Monty was fighting with himself over the whole situation concerning Leah. The fact that he kissed her, she had seemed to be unconcerned by it, then the accident, Harper listened to him talk about all of it.

Monty heard a loud ding from his bag, he had left his tablet on after class, he didn't have any intention of checking it, however Harper seemed to always feel the urge to check any email that arrived for any of them. She walked over and pulled it out of his bag, a smile danced across her lips. "You've got to be kidding me." She said almost laughing. "Leah would like your notes from the last week, she wanted to read over them since she is stuck in bed on orders from Doctor Griffin." Harper said reading the words from the screen before pausing to laugh lightly. "Also she wants to know if you want to come play chess with her because and I quote this "because after being stuck in medical she never wants to see Jackson or a chess set again."" Harper was laughing as she handed him the tablet to let him respond himself. "I expect you to tell her you'll be there within the hour," she said as she grabbed Jasper's hand. "Come on, I'm going to go make something to eat, lets leave Mr. Green here to answer his messages in private." She said pulling at Jasper who just went along with her, knowing better than to try to stay.

Monty looked at the screen himself, the words blurring slightly. He wanted to respond with what Harper told him too, but instead he wrote simply. **I thought you were leaving engineering.**

He waited a moment and as soon as she received it she must have responded.

 **Did you think you were going to get rid of me that easy?**

Leah took another deep breath as she sat on the counter top in the bathroom of their compartment, the ointment that Doctor Griffin had give her to put on the burns at home stung with each application but it really did seem to have them healing nicely, hopefully the scarring would be minimal. She was sitting on the counter in her boy short underwear and tank top, wrapping the bandage around her upper thigh when the door to the bathroom opened. John walked completely in before he even realized she was in there. "Shit, sorry." He mumbled quickly as he saw her sitting there.

"No, it's fine, I am almost done, can you hand me the medical tape, I knocked it off the counter a couple minutes ago." She said, the tinge of pink rushing to her cheeks. John had seen her in less, on a couple of occasions but never in such a close space. She hadn't seen him since she was dismissed from medical that morning, he had been in his room closed off to the world while she tried to navigate the compartment on her own, she was limping only slightly when the pain medications would wear off. He had also never visited her while she was in medical, every day for a week she expected to see him however every day it would be friends and even acquaintances but never John.

He lowered his eyes, his hair hanging over his face, he reached to pick up the tape and handed it to her, even with the door open there was not a lot of room for two people in the bathrooms in family compartments. "I didn't know you were suppose to get released today." He said simply, avoiding eye contact as she took the tape.

"Well you never came to visit so I couldn't really tell you, now could I?" She said bitterly, she hadn't intended too but the words came out so easily she had to have meant them.

"Yeah, sorry." He said, his hands shoved in his pockets as he leaned against the wall. He was avoiding looking at her, probably to make her feel more comfortable with the fact she wasn't wearing actual pants. She pulled and tore a piece using it to hold down the bandage that went over her right thigh. "Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

Leah took a moment as she laid the tape on the end of the bandage to calm herself. "Yeah, it looks a lot worse than it actually is. It hardly even hurts with some of the stuff Doctor Griffin gives me when I tell her I am in pain." She said smiling at John, she wasn't going to deny she was mad at him for never visiting her but she also wasn't going to make it a big deal unless he did. She didn't have time for that kind of useless drama in her life.

She went to push herself off the edge of the counter gently but stumbled as she did, putting to much weight on her injured leg and felt it give, if it hadn't been for John jumping to catch her she would have landed on the ground in a painful heap. John's arms' were around her, her face pretty much in his chest. "You sure you're okay? I can take you back to medical." John said quickly, for the first time since he had walked in Leah saw his face, and the bruise around his eye, on his upper cheek bone. It looked like he had lost a fight. She had been so consumed with telling herself she shouldn't be mad at him she hadn't even really looked at him.

She pushed herself away, making the gap between them a bit larger as she leaned back against the counter, her hand intellectually coming up to his face and coming within millimeters of the bruises on his face. "What happened?"

"It doesn't matter." John answered avoiding the question. "Are you sure.."

"Damn it John, is that why you didn't visit me?" Leah said letting some of that built up aggravation slip out. John bit his lip, she could tell he was thinking about something. "I was in there for almost a week," Leah said letting her voice level back out to a calm tone. John put one of his hands on her waist, the touch of his hand on her skin set off electric little tingles in her side. "John?" Leah's voice was almost a whisper as John inched closer to her.

"I told you I don't want to talk about it." John said sternly, before inching his face close enough to hers that she felt the warm heat of his breath on his skin. He ran his hand up her side a little bit as if he was waiting for permission to get even closer. It was Leah who closed the gap between their lips. She pressed her lips against his gently, it had been something that she had thought about in the past, but never more than a fleeting thought. She kept it simple, pressing her lips to his, kissing him gently, nervously. John put his other hand on her cheek pulling her face back to his with a bit more persistence as his lips danced against hers. He pushed her against the counter, his body pressed against Leah's in every way. She wanted to say that she wasn't enjoying it but every part of her body felt like electricity was running through ever muscle. Leah's hand ran into his mess of brown hair, as John's hand went away from her face and side and down further, he picked her up and set her on the counter, allowing him to slide between her legs to be even closer. His hand snaked around her back and pulled her closer to him with his hand on the small of her back. She felt herself smiling into the kiss just before he pulled away, leaving both of them panting, he put his forehead against hers, without any words between them.

Leah placed her hand gently on his cheek and placed her lips gently against his jawline, John found himself little out a small groan as she kissed his skin, he quickly recaptured her lips with a sense of such urgency that she was sure he'd pull her off the counter towards him. Leah had to admit she didn't want this to stop, she wanted to enjoy every second of this moment, but as soon as it had began she felt John pull away and take a couple steps back into the wall of the bathroom. "Shit..." The curse escaped the lips that Leah still craved were on hers.

"Not the word I would have picked." Leah didn't mean to sound bitter, but she was.

John took a deep breath and crossed his arms back over his chest like when he first walked into the bathroom. "You're mom is going to be home soon, you better be back in bed by the time she gets here." John said in the most nonchalant tone Leah thought she had ever heard before he left the room. Leaving her exactly where he had found her, however now she was confused and wishing she had never let her fleeting thoughts become reality.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: So guys, I really only have one excuse as to why this update took so long. Working retail will slowly kill your creative soul and turn you into a mindless holiday hating zombie. Anyways just a little note, this chapter takes place about a month after the previous one, and the next update should be up in a couple of days because I have now actually got back to writing and I would like to let you all read them instead of letting them collect dust on my harddrive, and as always I appreciate all of the reviews, messages, favorites and follows, it always makes my day a little better to see an email alert from this site. Thank you and enjoy.

* * *

Leah sat in the same chair she did when she first met Sinclair after taking the internship, however this time instead of the happy joyous face of excitement his brows were knitted tightly his face stern. "Leah, your mother and father were quite clear, if I accept you back into the program they didn't want you to be trained under anyone aside from myself and I am sorry to say this but I just do not have the time to dedicate to your studies fully." He sounded almost exhausted from explaining this to her for about the fifth time today alone.

She had been released from medical, forced to live in her families living compartment on bed rest and now that she was finally allowed to actually return to her studies she was being told by every single person she was not allowed too. "So my parents get to decide what opportunities I am allowed to accept that will effect my entire future? That isn't fair Sinclair, you know it, I know it, just let me..."

"I spoke with Abby, she would be happy to accept you into the medical internship, you'd get to work alongside Jackson..." Sinclair's words that were meant to comfort her just upset her more.

"I don't want to go to medical ever again in my life! Let alone work there while I grow old and die on this ship!" Leah barked while standing up, she slapped her hands onto his desk/ His angered face told her she had crossed a line, she took a deep breath, biting her lip in frustration. "I just want to be able to make my own decision about what I do for the rest of my life... Without having to get permission from my parents..." She said simply avoiding eye contact with the man she did genuinely respect.

She heard the sigh that escaped his lips and glanced up to meet his eyes. "I'll speak to your parents... I can't make any promises, but if they agree to allow you to continue under a different mentor I can assign you too Isabella Lawson, but you'll be put on her assignments and your current internship schedule will change substantially..." Leah hadn't even realized how big she was smiling as Sinclair rambled on about the fact that Lawson was working on a dreadfully boring project involving airlocks, the fact that she might still have a chance to continue her studies made her want to let out a shriek of joy. "Monty Green and Wick will continue your original assignments without you." That sentence caught her attention.

Monty had been kind enough to email her notes, from the sessions she would miss with Wick for a couple weeks, but he had never seemed to come visit her in person. By the third week she would occasionally receive and email with a few old notes apologizing for not remembering to send them sooner. She felt as if he was pushing her away, keeping her purposefully at a distance. Refusing her offers to come and play chess or watch a century old movie. Wick however, had been daily emailing her new and interesting circumstances to work out and solve, teaching her from a distance the best he could. He had been to visit while she was in Medical, he was their almost everyday even though she knew he had mountains of work he should be working through he took the time to come and bring her different things to read, to examine.

The thought of working without the two of them, it put a lump in her throat, a pain in her chest, and most of all a daze in her mind that left her feeling speechless. "I'll set up a meeting with them later in the week, so for the time being just continue your regular classes without your internship."

"Yes sir, thank you." Leah managed to say while pushing back the feelings she had about having to leave Monty and Wick.

"You are excused, Ms. Pentecost." Sinclair said before looking back to his tablet screen. "And please close the door when you leave." With that she took her leave, pulling the door shut behind her.

Leah stood in front of the closed door for a moment and allowed herself to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and sort out her thoughts. It didn't work as she found her calming moment rudely interrupted by Wick's voice. "At it again? I'll give you points for determination." He said as he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against next to the door of Sinclair's office.

Leah found herself almost jumping to the sound of his voice, it had startled her even if she didn't want to admit it. "Must you always be lurking outside Sinclair's office?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"Well he is my boss, and I kind of do have to check in with him daily, so yes." He said smiling in her charming way. Leah found herself smiling back without even wanting too. "So? How did it go this time? Did he tell you better luck next time and kick you out like every other day this week?" His concern for her studies resonated to his character even if Wick didn't want to admit it, he seemed to actually care for what happened to her future in engineering and had even went as far as to ask Sinclair if she would be allowed back into engineering if he stepped down as mentor to the two of them.

Leah's mother, Ana, he placed the bulk of the blame for Leah's accident on Wick and he seemed to accept fault for it. Leah assumed that was why he checked on her daily during her stint in medical and his daily emails with things to study and solve. However, when he had apologized for what happened while she was in medical, she had refused to accept it. She did not think anyone was at fault for what happened. It had been simply an accident.

"He is going to meet with my parents." She told him with a smile.

Wick seemed shocked by that fact. "I didn't think he'd break, but I guess if you annoy a man enough he will eventually break just so he doesn't have to deal with your whining everyday." No matter what Wick said to Leah, he seemed to always make a joke out of it. "Well, congratulations Sweetheart. Now get out of my way, some of us have work to do." He told her as she realized she was blocking his entry into the office, as she stepped aside, he knocked on the door and entered, shutting it behind him and leaving her alone in the hall. He had sounded surprised that Sinclair would make an offer to assist her, which surprised her slightly, Wick always spoke of how generous and caring Sinclair was.

Leah didn't hold onto the thought of Wick's surprise for long as she headed back to her family's living compartment in Hydro, people from her classes of friends of her parents stopping her occasionally to ask how she was feeling and to say how it was good to see her out and about in the Ark again. She'd have thought she was gone for an entire year the way some people treated her, not simply a month of bed rest for her leg. She still wore a bandage over her wrist, to hide the scar that had formed even though her shirt sleeve often covered both. He leg was healing fantastically as Doctor Griffin put it, Jackson also mentioned how well it was healing when she went in every day to get it checked for infection. She knew she should head to medical before heading back to Hydro but she didn't want to see Jackson or Doctor Griffin today. They had told her she wouldn't have to continue seeing them everyday if she didn't mind the appearance of the scarring, however if she wanted to minimize the appearance of the scars she would have to continue to see them.

In all honesty she wanted to get back to the compartment early to see if she could see John before he disappeared into his room. She had only seen him in passing or at dinner since their moment in the bathroom. John kept himself busy both inside and outside the compartment and seemed to be avoiding Leah, which she did partially understand. The fact that she had kissed him and he had reciprocated was almost taboo. Her family was housing him so he didn't have to live in the group home and had risked that by giving into some stupid lustful delusion where she could allow herself to enjoy John's company in that sense. John had never been very good at understanding how do deal with emotions or women, but Leah never asked that of him before but in that moment she had made him question the feelings he had for her. She wished she could just tell John to forget it had ever happened, but to do that she would have to speak to John alone and not across from him at a dinner table with her parents. John had made the chance of that alone moment happening almost impossible with the way he avoided being at the compartment and when he was home and in his room their secret connection through the closet was blocked securely with something.

Leah opened the door to her family residence to see her father sitting at the desk in the main living area, reading something off of his computer screen. "Working at home? That's usually reserved for mom." Leah said smiling at her father as she closed the door behind her.

Victor removed his reading glasses and stood from the desk. "Well you know, I have to act like a boss some of the time." He said walking over to his daughter and placing his arm around her, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "Welcome home, kiddo. What did Doctor Griffin say? Still healing up nicely?" He asked as he released her from his grip and began to walk towards the kitchen.

"I didn't see Doctor Griffin today." She said following after her father and standing behind a chair at the kitchen table.

Victor pulled two glasses from the cabinet, and began filling them both with water. "You haven't seen her the last few times you've went, I'll ask if she can see you over Jackson next time just to be sure..."

"Dad, I didn't go to medical today." She said as she pulled out the chair and sat down at the table. "I went to Sinclair's office again."

She looked up to see her father sitting the two glasses on the table and pull out his own chair next across from her. "Leah, we talked about this. Your mother and I just don't believe it is in your best interest to continue your internship." He said in almost defeat, Leah knew it wasn't her father's wish for her to discontinue her internship, it was strictly her mother's.

"He offered to put me under the supervision of Mrs. Lawson though, she had twice the experience of Wick and I'll be doing boring tedious calculation on airlock calibrations, nothing even remotely dangerous aside from perhaps a paper cut or two." Leah pleaded, if she could convince her father perhaps the meeting with her parents and Sinclair might play out in the way she wanted it too.

"I thought Doctor Griffin offered you an internship under Jackson in Medical?" Her father questioned sternly. "Do you not think that that would not be suitable work? I mean you didn't even want to take the engineering internship, you only did it to make your mother and I happy."

"I don't think I could work in medical, all the sick and injured I wouldn't know what to do with myself but when if I got to build a machine to help filter the oxygen more cleaning in certain sectors or re-purpose old materials in a more effective way? I didn't think I would like deigning machine, I always thought I would end up working on the like you, but Dad I really do want to continue working in engineering... Please let me have this opportunity, if I fail out I will take the internship with Doctor Griffin next year, Jackson said he would be happy to show me the basics whenever I want." Leah swallowed hard as she looked at her father's caring eyes. "Please."

Her father seemed to think about it for a moment, before finally cracking a smile. "I'll talk to your mother before dinner but if she finds out you blew off going to Medical today, I wouldn't count on her being to keen on the idea."

"I'll head over to Medical and be back before dinner." Leah said as she stood up and walking around the table, she bent over and wrapped her arms around the broad shoulders of her seated father as best she could. "Thank you." She said before leaving the compartment.

John came out of his room to see Victor sitting at the table with two full glasses in front of him. "How much of that did you hear?" Victor asked.

"Enough to know that she's got you wrapped around her little finger." John said as he crossed the room to grab the glass that had been meant for Leah and pick it up and put it to his lips. "Ana's going to be pissed."

Victor let out a deep laugh, causing John to raise an eyebrow to the older man. "You'll understand when you have a child, my boy, especially if that child is a little girl with big eyes and a brilliant mind."

"Sure I will." John said simply before putting the empty glass down on the table and escaping back to his room. John closed his door behind him and glanced towards his closet. John had been the person to tell Victor and Ana straight up that Leah never wanted to be in engineering, that she only did it because that's what they wanted. That had been the main argument for Ana's decision to keep Leah out of engineering.

The day that he had ran into Leah in the bathroom, he was trying to figure out a way to tell her that he had been to the one to tell her mother that she was only in that situation because her mother's pride had put her there. Instead he ended up putting himself in such a sticky situation concerning Leah he didn't know how to even speak to her, or look at her. That moment had been passionate, something he hadn't felt with many other girls. He had kissed plenty of girls, he had done more with quite a few too, but that moment was different. It was something he knew he shouldn't do, but each minute seemed to pass like a second while his lips were against hers, her skin was so soft and delicate. She was the picture of innocence and he had found himself thinking about how he could corrupt that innocence more and more.

He knew if Victor ever found out about that moment he would be sent to the group housing for orphans. Victor took him in and treated him as a son, but John would never be good enough for his daughter in his eyes. He also knew Victor would never allow John to even look at her in that sense, if Victor ever got the feeling that John felt more than friendship towards Leah, he knew he would be out. So after that day he tried to avoid Leah at all costs, avoiding coming to the compartment after classes, even going to the mess hall for dinner sometimes with his friends even though he knew Ana's cooking was better just so he didn't have to look at Leah across the table. He blocked the panel between their two rooms with his dresser that he pushed in there, knowing it would be to noisy to move the majority of the time and that if he did he would not be tempted to sneak into her room like he used too.

John tossed himself onto his bed as he realized he was staring at his closet door thinking of Leah. "Fuck me." He muttered as he put his arm over his eyes to cover them from the light overhead and relish the darkness.

* * *

"You know I think you've actually managed to impress me in a good way this time Green." Wick said as Monty sat at the workbench in Wick's office. "These schematics are spot on if you were going to revamp the agricultural sprinkler system, if you calculations are right, it'd even use less water." Wick said tossing the paper back to Monty.

"Should I say thanks or are you just playing a cruel joke on me... Again." Monty asked as he looked over his own work again, second guessing his original submission due to Wick's comments.

Wick chuckled slightly as he grabbed his tablet from off his desk and came to sit across from Monty at one of the stools he kept at his workbench. "It was so impressive I showed Sinclair, he thought about bringing it up to the lead mechanic over in Agro." Wick said simply, "but if he did you would be put over there to work with a couple over engineers to see how it would work in practical application..." Wick's words trailed off as he smiled at Monty. Monty's face lit up with joy as Wick seemed to be hinting at the two not having to continue in circumstantial class problems for much longer. "However that type of improvement would have to be in the works for a couple years before you'd really get to try anything, but I thought I'd let you know that once you are done with your internship you pretty much have your first assignment set up and you'd actually get to work on something you designed, not just trying to poke holes in other peoples designs like I do." Wick said crushing Monty's excitement almost as quickly as he built it up. " You know if I am being honest, it reminds me of something Pentecost would have come up with, it's something creative, you didn't just rely on straight calculations for once, you took some risks that worked in your favor in this assignment. So I'll let you skate by with no circumstantial problems tonight, just read up on Sinclair's required list, and enjoy the couple days off. Okay, man?" Wick said smiling at Monty who just nodded and grabbed his bag. He planned on just leaving, and trying to forget the fact that Wick had brought Leah, and the fact she wasn't there with them anymore.

Wick had known that Monty had been assigned those connectors the day of her accident, Wick didn't check Monty's work because Monty had distracted him away from it by questioning the importance of knowing how do the cleaning in the first place. However, Wick never addressed it with him aside from the once outside of Sinclair's office after the two of them had been briefed on the condition of Bishop and Leah. Monty remembered it clearly, Wick's charming smile replaced with a clenched jaw, his kind eyes replaced with rage, the words still rang in his mind on occasion. "That's your one fuck up, you do it again, and you wont be working anywhere near people again. Accidents are one thing, but preventable accidents aren't accidents." The face looked nothing like the one that had been looking at him moments ago.

Monty stopped himself before he reached the door. "Speaking of Pentecost, did Sinclair say anything about if she'd be coming back?"

Wick scoffed as he picked up his mug of coffee. "Do you really think you have the right to ask?" Wick's tone pissed Monty off more than he could put into words, but he knew the older boy had a point. "But yeah, he did. She'll be working with Lawson on airlock calibrations for the foreseeable future, her parents and Sinclair came to an understanding about it yesterday." Wick said looking at Monty, meeting his gaze almost like he was trying to prove he could hold his eyes longer before feeling as if he had to look away, "I thought you would know, seeing as you two seemed to be pretty close like what a month ago?" Monty lost in that moment, his eyes darted to the floor away from Wick's judging gaze. Wick knew Monty hadn't been to see her in Medical, but he wasn't sure how much more he knew about the fact the two didn't communicate anymore. Every time Monty thought about visiting her, he thought about how he could have just bothered to do his job properly and that none of things would have even happened.

"Yeah... I was just going to share the news with you if you didn't hear." Monty found himself saying, he wasn't even sure if he believed his lie himself.

"Sure you were, now go do something fun and stop wasting my time, Sinclair's got me buried under paperwork." Monty didn't look back to Wick before leaving the room, knowing if he had that Wick's face would have told him he saw through his lie without even a second thought.

Jasper was waiting in the Agro commons hall with Harper when Monty approached the two of them, Jasper was getting beaten pretty badly at checkers by Harper it seemed. "Dude, you're early. He tell you to fuck off again?" Jasper asked as Harper took yet another one of his pieces. "Oh come on, give me a break." He whined to the girl as she showed him no mercy.

"Naw, he just told me he was impressed with me and gave me sometime off as a reward." Monty said as he picked up a piece of Jasper and moved it capturing one of her token in return to her earlier move.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Jasper announced excitedly. "Did you hear that Harper? Our boy's a genius and should definitely be rewarded for such a brilliant mind." Jasper grinned ear to ear and Monty knew he was hoping Harper would extend and olive branch of peace, the two had recently been quarreling over the amount of time they spent getting stoned and getting sloshed at Harper's instead of actually socializing with the rest of the girls in the station. Jasper wanted to invite more people to Harper's, Harper usually just wanted Monty to leave to spend more time alone with Jasper. She'd never admit it out loud to anyone but Monty had the feeling that Harper had feelings for his goofy best friend.

"Forget it, I don't even have enough to get us through the weekend with the way you've been going through it." Harper shook her head. "Unless you two want to make a run through Monty's parents lab tonight. I could probably bribe Nygel for some more booze but she isn't interested in anything I have for trade." Harper said simply. Monty knew that Harper probably just wasn't willing to give Nygel anything that she actually asked for because the majority of the time, Nygel didn't want things, she wanted favors and though sometimes Harper agreed, recently Monty could tell Nygel's favors had been too steep of a cost for Harper to deal with.

Jasper grinned up at his friend. "What do you say man?"

Before Monty could answer, Harper changed the topic. "Is that Leah?" She had been looking past Monty, both boys turned to look and saw the slender brunette figure talking with an older woman by the windows across from the commons. The same windows that Monty had kissed her in front of while it overlooked the Earth that night.

"Yeah, I guess she started her internship back sooner than I expected." Monty said turning and looking back to Harper.

"I wonder how the scar looks? Clark mentioned seeing it to Wells one day in the library, she said her leg looked pretty bad." Jasper said before turning back to look to Harper. "I bet, her legs still look fine as hell even with that giant scar." He said with a cocky little grin that would have normally made Monty smile, if it hadn't made him feel so guilty.

"How about you stop treating women like a piece of meat before I hit you upside your head." Harper said in the happiest tone she could muster, annoyed didn't begin to cover the feelings she was probably feeling towards Jasper and his complete ignorance of the fact that she was a girl and probably didn't like hearing about Jasper's perverse thoughts.

Jasper looked back over his shoulder, it was when he began to wave like a mad man, that Monty looked back as well to see Leah smiling gently looking slightly embarrassed as she excused herself from her conversation with the older woman and began to make her way towards them. Monty wasn't sure why, but he found himself glaring at Jasper. "Hey! Leah!" Jasper called with a smile, Monty looked away back to Harper who just gave him a comforting knowing smile.

Leah came closer and stood next to Monty and Jasper. "Hey guys, how's it going?" She asked like nothing had ever happened. Like Monty had spoken to her just yesterday instead of almost a month ago.

"Fine, we were just discussing the fact that Harper was going to invite everyone over tonight to watch that same shitty comedy that we watch every weekend." Jasper said looking at Harper with his brilliant smile.

Harper rolled her eyes and looked up at Leah. "We weren't actually but it is true, if you wanted to come you could. I think Fox is coming and I think she's planning on bringing Atom, it'd be nice to have someone to talk to who isn't drooling." She said kindly.

Leah looked over to see if Monty was going to say anything, but the fact he was staring at the floor, gave her the sign that he wasn't. "I actually have a lot of studying to do, Mrs. Lawson enjoys pointing out that Wick was just a hot shot kid who has no business being a mentor. She spent more time showing me her past failed projects than actually teaching me anything about engineering." Leah faked a smile, as she looked to Harper. "Thanks for inviting me though, I appreciate the thought."

"Oh come on, a couple hours wont kill you. Plus, you kept telling me you didn't want any visitors while you were on bed rest." Jasper whined to Leah, Monty had received quite a few invitations from Leah asking for company while she was stuck at home, he hadn't known she had been blowing off the requested Jasper made asking if he could come.

"Jasper, she said she was busy." Harper insisted.

"Studying. She said she was busy studying and I think studying the way that Paulie Shore rides the pig is just as important as oxygen levels." Jasper said with a smile before reaching out and grabbing Leah's hand. "Come on, I need some friendly company, do you see the way this woman treats me?" Jasper said fighting to suppress his own laughter.

It was one thing Leah learned quickly about Jasper was that he was his own favorite comedian. She was about to turn down the offer a second time and excuse herself before she had to reject a third time when Monty looked up at her. "I mean if you want to study I'll bring my tablet with my notes, that way you could look over some of the hot shot's ideas instead of Lawson's failures." Monty said attempting to manage a kind smile at Leah and failing giving her an awkward looking half smile.

Leah pursed her lips as she thought about it for a moment. "Uh yeah sure... I guess I'll come by if that's okay with you Harper, but I really don't care what Paulie Shore does with any pig."

Harper laughed gently before nodding. "Just tune it out like the rest of us do."

"See you tonight then?" Leah asked looking to Monty one last time, reassuring he was actually wanting to be in her company after seeming to push her away in the past few weeks.

"Yeah, see ya then." He said simply, actually managing a real smile this time. With that reassurance, Leah excused herself and headed back towards Hydro to check in with her parents and eat whatever meal her mother had prepared that evening before studying a bit and then heading to Harper's.

Leah found herself growing exciting over the idea of hanging out with people, most of the people she wanted to be closest too in recent times had been keeping her at the most distance, and it was slowly chipping away at her spirits but this was a chance to possibly fix that with at least Monty who had become close to her during their early studies in Engineering. She just hoped she didn't allow herself to set her hopes too high just in case they did come crashing down.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: I don't own the 100 or it's characters.

Harper had been watching Monty sit uncomfortably on the floor, impatiently waiting to see the girl who made him feel both amazing and like shit at the same time and she couldn't stand the fact that it felt like only she noticed. Jasper, Fox, and Atom had been playing cards in her room while Harper had been hanging around her kitchen, they had agreed to wait to start the same old movie until Leah came round. Atom surprised to here the Hydro girl had even agreed to come back around Agro, felt it important she feel included. Perhaps he just wanted to wrap his arm around her in the dark instead of Fox, but Harper didn't question the boys motives to much, he wasn't the cleverest of men. Monty had been sitting on the floor of her kitchen fiddling with his tablet, spinning it about in his hands, had his father or mother saw how he was treating the device like a simple toy they would have blown like one of the atom bombs that had ended the Earth.

"Harper?" His voice caught her attention, he hadn't looked up to her yet, his eyes were still glued to the metal floor. "Do you think that it was my fault?" She could tell it was paining him to even ask. "I just don't think I can continue feeling this guilty about something that I don't even know if I could have fixed." Monty said finally looking up to her, his eyes looked so glassy, like he was lost in his own mind.

Harper took a moment to push herself onto the counter, before answering her friend. "Masters and the lead mechanics in Hydro said it was the seal in the hose not forming a proper seal right? Even if you had checked it, a bad piece of plastic is a bad piece of plastic. They are known to wear down, just like everything else in this rust bucket." Her lips forming a smile, that wasn't unwelcome. She was trying to lessen his guilty, but she honestly wasn't sure the best way to go about it. "The only person who thinks it is your fault is Wick right?"

"Actually, he blames himself." Monty said offhandedly.

"Damn, I wish I knew her secret." Harper joked. "I mean, having two guys blaming themselves for putting her in pain, both of them putting themselves through mental anguish just because I got a boo boo." Harper was clearly exaggerating, but Monty actually found the humor in her comments. "I think you just need to stop being a pansy and ask the girl in a date honestly. Like a proper date not try to steal a kiss after you have both been drinking at a party."

"I wasn't drunk though, I knew..."

"Oh my god, honestly Monty, for being a genius you really are an idiot. Do you think she knows you weren't just drunk taking advantage of the moment? She is the ice queen, the girl who has never even really dated anyone, because the few she has been on hardly count if she doesn't realize it is a date. Hell, John Murphy is one of her closest friends and that is just because they live together." Harper was really spelling this out for him the best to her ability. Girls like Leah were not as well versed in matters of the heart and body compared to girls like Harper or Fox, not that it was a bad thing but compared to them Leah was as ignorant as they came. "I think you need to just move on from it, it was an accident, if she has moved on, so should you." She said putting an end to the topic of discussion.

Monty tried to find holes in Harper's logic, but failed with every attempt, Leah was an uncomplicated girl compared to most, yet he seemed to be completely unable to solve the puzzle of her. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am right." Harper chuckled as she heard a knock at the door. She pushed herself off the counter and extended her hand to Monty, "perhaps you should open the door for your princess." Her smile was so caring, Monty couldn't believe how good of a friend Harper was too him. He grabbed hold of her hand and allowed her to help pull him off the ground as they both left the kitchen, Harper heading towards her room to tell the others game time was over and Monty to get the door for Leah.

* * *

Leah was almost a hundred percent sure that this had to be one of the worst movies she had ever seen. The fact that it had survived the destruction of the Earth almost made her sad, but the fact that Jasper seemed to laugh wholeheartedly at every joke as if it were the first time he heard it, made the movie almost tolerable. By the end Leah almost felt for the characters who had been used by others, but the fact it ended to family and friends sitting down to a meal was the best ending she could have imagined for the story. Fox had curled up in Atom's arms on Harper's bed, Harper was sitting in her chair trying to pretend she still found the jokes funny, Jasper was seated on the floor as close to the picture as he could be taking in every scene, it left Leah and Monty to sit next to each other at the end of Harper's bed on the floor. She had taken turns during the movie deciding who to steal glances of, however she found herself drawn to Monty intently starring at the screen most. She didn't believe he had even actually heard a word of the movie, he seemed to be off in his own mind, Leah found herself wondering what he was lost in, it intrigued her far more than it should.

"Alright, movies over so party is over. My dad is do back earlier than normal tonight." Harper said simply as she looked mostly at Fox and Atom, who looked far to comfortable in her bed. "Seriously." She stressed her eyes locked on Fox who rolled her eyes in response as she and Atom climbed off her bed.

Leah stood up as did Monty, she brushed herself gently, and smiled at Monty, tuning out the whines of Jasper who apparently really didn't want to get off the floor. "Did you want someone to walk back to Hyrdo with you?" Monty offered. He had been actually been rather friendly with her this evening which she didn't mind. He talked about engineering and made fun of Wick with her, before the start of the movie. The interaction reminded her of the talks they used to have when walking back from their internship together, it was pleasant.

"No, I'll be fine, it isn't that late." Leah said with a smile.

She noticed Atom and Fox had already left as she thanked Harper for hosting, though Harper played it off as if it were nothing. "You're welcome around whenever. I normally wouldn't bother to make people leave but I thought it would be nice for my old man to get a good nights sleep while he gets the chance." Harper told her as she pushed Jasper through the door of her housing compartment. Leah exited laughing after him followed by Monty who took a moment to walk to the side with Leah, leaving Jasper watching the pair intently.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to meet tomorrow and compare notes. You know, since you said you weren't getting on with Mrs. Lawson well and all. We didn't really get much of a chance to go over it before the movie." Monty said as he put his hand behind his head awkwardly.

It was Leah's smile that calmed his nerves and set him more at ease. "Sure, just be sure to email me the rest of the documents tonight so I can read over them."

The moment would have been almost charming had Jasper not announced loudly, "If you want to kiss her just go ahead already," in an attempt to embarrass his friend. Monty then quickly thereafter excused himself and walked away with Jasper but not before punching him squarely in the arm. Leah couldn't help but to laugh.

As she began her walk back home, she found herself walking towards the opposite end of the Ark towards Mecha where the majority of Engineering offices were. She wasn't sure what had drawn her to this part of the ship, especially at this late hour but she knew she didn't want to go home yet.

She stopped outside of Wick's office and knocked lightly on his door. The crash she heard inside let her know that Wick was actually in his office. It took a few minutes but finally he opened the door, Wick looked as though he hadn't slept in days which was something Monty hadn't mentioned when they were talking about him earlier. "You're not Griffin." He said in an annoyed tone. "What do you want?" He asked as he walked away and left the door open for her.

Leah followed him inside and noticed all the massive changes in chaos of Wick's typical mess. Their were more scribbles on his white boards, half of which were half wiped away. And replaced with new scribbling, that made no sense, papers and manuals covered his work bench. He sat back down in front of his mess, "I just thought I would tell you I started back to my internship today." Leah said looking around the room. She noticed his cot that he used to keep tucked in the corner was pulled out and had been used at least a couple times. "But I can see you're busy..."

Wick was sitting at his workbench with his hands in his hair. "You could say that..." She could hear the stress in his voice. "Listen, congratulations, seriously I didn't think you'd be back. I bet Jackson is pissed to lose you." Wick said trying his best to muster a smile for her.

"Yeah I'm sure." Her eyes reading over his calculations on his board. The more she read the board the more confused she got.

Wick had gotten out of his seat and walked over to stand in front of her blocking her view of his work. "Lawson should have you working on something, unless you just want extra homework." Wick sounded like he was joking like normal but the calculations he was running on his board, the numbers they didn't make sense for any practical situation.

"Lawson, is far from your biggest fan." Leah said looking up at Wick.

"She was my mentor and she tried to get me to quit everyday." Wick told her honestly. "She doesn't like creative thinkers, she prefers methods and logistics, which is why she calibrates airlocks and I have a new assignment every week."

"I thought you had a new assignment because Sinclair just liked giving you the lackey work." Leah poked at Wick as she walked over to his work bench.

"Lackey work, huh?" Wick said walking up next too her and looking over at his papers. "If you think that will get me to explain what I am working on you are sorely mistaken." He said smiling at her, "but if you ever need some help with your assignments feel free to stop by, okay?"

"Yeah, but if you need some help, like with cleaning or whatever, let me know." Leah said smiling at the older boy.

Wick laughed as if he it were the best joke he had ever heard, she was sure he had some witty response when his office door opened and a man about her dad's age was standing there. "Sorry Wick, is it a bad time?" He asked, the man looked more exhausted than Wick did.

"No, Leah was just leaving." Wick said seriously, and with that Leah just smiled and awkwardly said her goodbyes to the men. Whatever those two were working on had to be vital and rushed because both men looked exhausted.

* * *

Author's Note: So extra note because The 100 season 4 started back up. I just wanted to say, I have a feeling this storyline will be so much more interesting than the AI storyline. I can't wait to see where it goes this season.


End file.
